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FOUNDED  BY  JOHN  D.  ROCKEFELLER 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE 
HISTORIC  DRAMA 

ITS  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE: 

A  STUDY  BASED  CHIEFLY  ON  THE  DRAMAS  OF  ELIZABETHAN 

ENGLAND  AND  OF  GERMANY 

A  DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED    TO    THE    FACULTY    OF    THE    GRADUATE    SCHOOL    OF    ARTS 

AND    LITERATURE    IN   CANDIDACY    FOR    THE    DEGREE 

OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

(department   of   GERMANIC    LANGUAGES   AND  LITERATURES) 

•y  S 


r.\^^ 


BY 

LOUISE  MALLINCKRODT  KUEFFNER 


.L^NfVERSITvi 

'^  ,  OF 


a     "^ 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 

THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK 

CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON  AND  EDINBURGH 


Xlbe  Xllniversit^  of  Cbicago 

FOUNDED  BY  JOHN  D  ROCKEFELLER 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE 
HISTORIC  DRAMA 

ITS  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE: 

A  STUDY  BASED  CHIEFLY  ON  THE  DRAMAS  OF  ELIZABETHAN 

ENGLAND  AND  OF  GERMANY 

A  DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED    TO    THE    FACULTY    OF    THE    GRADUATE    SCHOOL    OF    ARTS 

AND    LITERATURE    IN    CANDIDACY    FOR    THE    DEGREE 

OF  DOCTOR  OF   PHILOSOPHY 

(department    of    GERMANIC    LANGUAGES   AND  LITERATURES) 


BY 

LOUISE  MALLINCKRODT  KUEFFNER 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


Copyright  igio  By 

The  University  of  Chicago 

All  Rights  Reserved 

Published  October  igio 


Composed  and  Printed  By 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press 

Chicago,  Illinois,  U.S.A. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction i 

Vagueness  of  the  Conception  "  Historic  Drama  " 

The  Quarrel  concerning  the  Function  of  History  in  the  Drama 

Parallehsm  between  the  Types  of  Historic  Drama  and  the  Chief 
Forms  of  Historic  Method 

Sketch  of  Historic  Method 

Part  I.  Deduction  of  the  Chief  Problems  of  the  Historic 
Drama  on  the  Basis  of  Theoretical  Discussion  on  the 
Relation  between  History  and  the  Drama  .       .       .     v         io 

Part  II.    The  Chief  Types  of  the  Historic  Drama       ...  69 

The  Individuahstic  Character-Drama 73 

The  Symbolic  Process-Drama 74 

The  Corporate  Movement-Drama 75 

Part  III.    The  Nature  and  the  Technique  of  the  Corporate 

Movement-Drama 77 

Bibliography 85 

Index 95 


111 


2044GG 


I  desire  to  express  my  appreciation  especially  to  Professor  Starr  W. 
Cutting,  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  for  helpful  encouragement  and 
suggestion  in  my  work.  I  wish  also  to  thank  my  other  teachers  for  inspira- 
tion which  they  have  given  me,  in  particular.  Professor  Camillo  von  Klenze, 
now  of  Brown  University,  Professor  Rudolph  Lehmann,  now  of  the  Royal 
Academy  of  Posen,  and  Professor  Otto  Heller,  of  Washington  University, 
St.  Louis,  with  whom  I  began  my  Germanistic  studies.  I  am  indebted 
also  to  Professor  Francis  A.  Wood,  to  Professor  Philip  Schuyler  Allen,  and 
to  Professor  Martin  Schuetze,  all  of  the  University  of  Chicago.  To  Pro- 
fessor Marian  P.  Whitney,  of  Vassar  College,  I  make  grateful  acknowledg- 
ment for  the  interest  which  she  has  taken  in  the  progress  of  this  study. 


IV 


The  Fourth  Part  of  this  study,  which  will  be  concerned  with  the  develop- 
ment of  the  historic  drama  in  its  practice,  will  not  be  published  as  part 
of  this  dissertation.  The  whole  will  appear,  as  soon  as  may  be,  in  the 
form  of  a  book  planned  not  only  for  the  scholar,  but  also  for  the  general 
student  who  is  interested  in  problems  of  literary  evolution. 


'^  or  THE    ^ 

U^"VEJ?SITY 

OF 


INTRODUCTION 

Within  the  last  century  the  drama  and  the  theory  of  the  drama  have 
undergone  a  complete  revolution.  If  one  passes  in  thought  from  the 
classic  plays  of  Lessing,  Goethe,  Schiller,  to  certain  plays  of  Ibsen,  Haupt- 
mann,  Maeterlinck,  and  Gorky,  one  is  compelled  to  confess  that  the  sphere 
and  the  technique  of  the  drama  have  been  enormously  broadened. 

If  one  were  to  characterize  the  development  in  a  word,  one  could  say 
that  it  represents  one  side  of  the  advance  of  realism,  and  that,  with  realism, 
it  is  the  result  of  the  great  movement  "toward  democracy."  Thus  we 
find  the  interest  passing  from  great  kings  and  heroes,  more  and  more  to 
the  middle  class,  and  finally  to  the  most  lowly  of  all,  the  proletariat. 
Instead  of  typical,  universally  human  characterization,  we  have  realistic 
individualization;  in  place  of  a  problem  of  private  and  individual  psy- 
chology, we  find  often  the  presentation  of  a  great  movement  that  aflfects 
whole  masses.  Instead  of  plot  produced  by  a  few  consciously  calculating 
individuals,  individuals  isolated,  powerful,  vmaffected  by  an  environment 
or  atmosphere,  we  have  a  complex  resultant  of  many  and  not  always 
consciously  calculating  wills.  Motivation  from  scene  to  scene  and  action 
to  action,  from  character  to  catastrophe,  has  become  less  visibly  logical, 
and  is  more  complex,  as  well  as  more  subtle  in  sweep.  The  conception  of 
the  historic  drama,  in  particular,  a  type  never  before  adequately  realized 
and  analyzed,  has  received  new  development  both  in  theory  and  in  practice. 

The  influence  of  realism  on  the  conception  of  all  literary  forms  is 
shown  in  the  case  of  the  historic  drama  in  a  growing  desire  to  comprehend 
and  use  history  honestly,  to  interpret  individuals,  their  deeds,  and  events, 
without  alteration  for  subjective  purposes,  by  giving  what  has  actually 
been,  not  the  beautiful,  or  sublime,  or  supersensual.  Events  are  presented 
in  their  natural  sequence,  and  not  as  fitted  into  a  rationally  motived 
scheme,  such  as  the  old  one  of  guilt  and  retribution;  they  are  seen  to 
vindicate  themselves  by  actual  occurrence  according  to  a  large  historic 
necessity,  and  a  causal  connection  so  complex  that  there  is  room  for 
what  seems  like  chance.  Moreover,  the  modern  genetic  conception  of 
history,  which  has  been  developed  particularly  since  the  French  Revo- 
lution, and  which  sees  events  as  the  product  of  complicated  mass  action, 
has  succeeded  the  older  pragmatic  conception  which  represented  an 
historic  event  as  the  clear  and  direct  result  of  the  conscious  calculation 
of  a  few  definitely  wiUing  individuals.     This  new  method  of  interpreting 


2  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

history  is  reflected  in  the  drama  in  the  giving  of  milieu,  and  in  the  pre- 
senting of  the  plot  as  the  complex  product  of  the  diverse  willings  of  many. 
Definite  mass  background  is  given,  also,  in  order  to  make  manifest  the 
inevitable  determining  of  the  character  of  the  hero  by  his  environment. 

In  the  writing  of  history  the  pragmatic  treatment  of  it  has  been  trans- 
formed, and  almost  absorbed,  in  the  genetic  treatment.  As  regards  the 
writing  of  historic  drama,  however,  the  tj-ranny  of  the  old  type  of  the 
Aristotelian  "tragedy,"  or  rationalistic  individualist  character-drama,  still 
prevails,  and  makes  it  difficult  for  men  to  enter  into  the  conception  of  the 
corporate,  or  historic  movement  type,  with  its  more  epic  technique.  By 
individualist  character-drama  I  mean  the  drama  of  private  interest,  of 
typical  characterization,  of  visible  logical  motivation,  and  of  the  guilt-and- 
retribution  conception  of  the  fate-power.  In  the  corporate  type,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  main  interest  and  point  of  departure  are  not  the  private 
psychological,  universally  human  experience  of  a  chief  character  or  two 
developed  according  to  the  guilt,  recompense,  and  catharsis  formula,  but 
an  historic  movement,  in  which  large  and  opposing  and  equally  justified 
forces  clash  and  produce,  inevitably,  in  accordance  with  historic  necessity, 
events  of  wide  social  concern. 

If  one  calls  to  mind  dramas  that  deal  with  historic  subjects — dramas, 
for  instance,  of  Shakespeare,  Goethe,  Schiller,  Kleist,  Grillparzer,  Grabbe, 
Hebbel,  Ludwig,  Ibsen,  Hauptmann — one  appreciates  at  once  that  they 
are  of  infinite  variety,  so  that  it  seems  almost  impossible  to  define  "his- 
toric drama."  The  great  variety  has  been  produced  because  the  interest 
of  the  drama  lies  now  more  in  individual  psychology,  now  in  mass  move- 
ment; because  the  figures  show  either  typical  characterization  or  definite 
individualization;  because  the  plot-construction  is  marked  either  by  sim- 
plicity or  complexity;  and  because  the  dominant  mood  of  the  drama  is 
now  optimistic,  now  pessimistic. 

One  sees  at  once  that  the  desire  to  present  history  in  dramatic  form 
has  been  in  constant  conflict  with  the  desire  to  write  a  "tragedy." 

One  sees  also  that  the  historic  dramas  of  different  times  have  reflected 
various  stages  in  the  understanding  of  history;  that,  indeed,  they  embody 
the  conceptions  that  men  have  had  of  the  motive  force  behind  the  events 
of  history.  In  other  words,  the  drama  of  history  has  been  parallel  to, 
and  dependent  on,  the  stages  of  the  philosophy  of  history. 

It  is  therefore  no  wonder  that  historic  dramas  have  shown  such  great 
differences.  Nor  is  it  a  wonder  that  the  function  of  history  in  the  drama 
has  caused  such  infinite  and  contradictory  discussion,  and  that  the  historic 
drama  has  never  been  adequately  comprehended  and  vindicated  as  a  dis- 


INTRODUCTION  3 

tinct  species,  with  origin,  nature,  purpose,  and  laws  of  its  own,  different, 
especially  in  its  non-pragmatic,  non-individualistic  types,  from  those  of 
the  "tragedy." 

Almost  every  writer  of  historic  drama  has  had  his  tug  with  the  question, 
a$  have  also  the  critics.  Especially  since  Lessing,  since  the  acquaintance 
of  the  Germans  with  Shakespeare,  and  since  Goethe's  Goetz  von  Berlichin- 
gcn,  theory  and  practice,  as  regards  the  historic  drama,  have  been  abundant. 

In  the  poet's  struggle  with  the  problem,  the  historic  interest  has  too 
often  suffered  because  the  theory  existed,  and  still  exists,  first,  that  unless 
the  development  of  an  inner  private  psychological  experience  of  a  few 
chief  characters  is  depicted,  and  that  unless  these  characters  are  presented 
as  human  struggling  individuals  with  some  kind  of  a  love-interest,  and  not  as 
political  forces,  the  resulting  drama  could  have  no  interest;  and  secondly, 
because  the  theory  holds  that  unless  the  plot,  with  its  catastrophe,  a  single 
logically  developed  action,  is  seen  to  be  the  visible  result  of  conflict  of 
character,  the  result  is  not  drama.  Therefore  the  task  of  presenting  true 
history  has  again  and  again  been  relegated  to  the  historian;  and  again 
and  again,  man's  inherent  interest  in  definite  historic  actuality,  and  his 
ineradicable  desire  to  see  history  dramatically  presented  before  his  very 
eyes,  has  produced  ever  new  attempts  at  historic  drama,  and  new  dis- 
cussions of  its  theory. 

The  following  study,  which  is  based  chiefly  on  the  dramas  of  Eliza- 
bethan England  and  of  Germany,  will 

I,  examine  the  theoretic  discussion  which  shows  the  struggle  with 
the  problem,  and  also  the  various  adumbrations  of  a  conception  of  a 
drama  honestly  historic  in  aim,  adumbrations  constantly  obscured  by  the 
desire  to  write  a  "tragedy"; 

II,  give  a  classification  of  various  types  of  historic  dramas; 

III,  analyze  more  particularly  the  nature  and  the  technique  of  what 
I  have  called  the  corporate  movement-drama,  and  of  the  symbolic 
process-drama; 

IV,  study  the  practice  of  the  historic  drama  with  especial  reference 
to  these  two  types. 

Inasmuch  as  writers  of  historic  dramas  reflect  at  every  point  the  various 
conceptions  that  men  have  had  of  the  historic  process,  it  is  necessary, 
before  passing  to  the  consideration  of  the  subjects  mentioned  above,  to 
give  a  somewhat  explicit  account  of  historic  method.^ 

I  For  an  outline  of  the  interpretations  of  history  see  especially  Ernst  Bernheim, 
Lehrbuch  der  historischen  Melhode,  and  his  Geschichtsforschung  und  Geschichtsphilo- 


4  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA 

The  earliest  or  "recitative"  method  of  writing  history  is  the  result  of 
"the  naive  interest  in  remarkable  human  fatalities,  which  is  characteristic 
of  man  in  consequence  of  his  curiosity  and  imagination. "^  The  pleasure 
here  is  in  historic  anecdote  for  its  own  sake;  there  is  no  attempt  at  accurate 
causal  motivation.  This  method  is  found  in  Herodotus,  largely, ^  and  in 
the  historic  chronicles  of  the  age  of  Shakespeare. 

Although  the  recitative  method  will  always  have  a  place  in  the  writing 
of  history,  it  was  early  overshadowed  by  the  "pragmatic"  method.  The 
pragmatic  method  was  characterized  by  the  conception  of  history  as  the 
result  of  the  definite  calculation  of  a  few  striking  personalities;  these 
personalities  were  represented  as  being  actuated  by  psychological  motives, 
motives  which  were  personal  and  at  the  same  time  universally  human. 
Moreover,  they  were  apprehended  as  representative  types  of  human  char- 
acter, not  as  definite  individuals,  and  this  made  it  possible  to  deduce 
lessons  for  general  political  action.  This  is  the  method  brilliantly  illus- 
trated in  Thucydides3  and  in  Tacitus.  It  found  its  climax  in  the  age  of 
rationalism.  Dilthey  says  that  this  pragmatic  method  regards  "individuals 
as  the  only  empirically  deducible  causes  of  events,"  and  that  it  "considers 
these  striking  individuals  not  from  the  point  of  view  of  forces  unconsciously 
effective  in  them;  but  from  the  point  of  view  of  conscious  purpose  and 
plan,  in  short,  of  rational  activity  devoted  principally  to  the  furthering  of 
personal  interests."'*     Lamprecht  says,  "Inasmuch  as  it  was  impossible 

Sophie;  Dilthey,  "Das  achtzehnte  Jahrhundert  und  die  geschichtliche  Welt,"  Die 
deutsche  Rundschau  (1901);  Giesebrecht,  " Entwicklung  der  modernen  deutschen 
Geschichtswissenschaft,"  in  Sybels  Historische  Zeitschrijt  (1859),  I,  1-17;  Droysen, 
Grundriss  der  Historik;  Flint,  History  oj  the  Philosophy  of  History  in  France,  Bel- 
gium, and  Switzerland;  Rickert,  "Geschichtsphilosophie,"  in  Die  Philosophien  im 
zwanzigsten  Jahrhundert;  Lamprecht,  Moderne  Geschichtswissenschajt;  Mencke- 
Glueckert,  Goethe  als  Geschichtsphilosoph.  See  also  Hegel's  Philosophie  des  Rechts, 
Philosophic  der  Geschichte,  Phaenomenologie,  Aesthetik.  Compare  also  Poetzsch, 
Studien  zur  fruehromantischen  Politik  und  Geschichtsauffassung. 

1  Bernheim,  Historische  Methode,  18. 

2  Even  in  Herodotus  the  Persian  War  is  related  as  a  story  of  punished  pride. 
See  Part  I. 

3  In  Thucydides  the  stories  of  single  characters  as  well  as  the  story  of  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  War  are  also  fashioned  in  such  a  way  as  to  fit  into  the  "tragedy"  mold  of 
punished  Hybris.  See  Part  I.  Compare  Cornford,  Thucydides  Mythistoricus.  The 
pragmatic  purpose  appears  clearly  in  the  words  of  Thucydides'  Introduction:  "I 
shall  be  satisfied  if  the  facts  are  pronounced  to  be  useful  by  those  who  shall  desire  to 
know  clearly  what  has  happened  in  the  past,  and  the  sort  of  things  that  are  likely, 
so  far  as  man  can  foresee,  to  happen  again  in  the  future." 

4  Deutsche  Rundschau  (1901). 


INTRODUCTION  5 

to  show  the  inter-connection  of  the  entire  psychical  processes  of  an  age, 
the  tendency  arose,  to  regard  the  great  intellectual  phenomena  as  the 
result  of  the  activity  of  a  few  definite  individualities."^  Bernheim,  finally, 
writes,  "'Pragmatics'  easily  comes  to  overestimate  the  power  of  personal 
motives  in  the  shaping  of  history,  and  thus  overlooks  the  others;  .... 
so  that  in  the  end  the  fortunes  of  thrones  and  nations  are  imagined  to  be 
dependent  upon  the  whims  of  ladies'  maids."  He  also  calls  attention  to 
the  fact  that  this  method  lends  itself  readily  to  didactic  purposes,  and  that 
it  has  been  used  particularly  for  the  promulgation  of  patriotism.  He 
finds  that  it  has  flourished  chiefly  at  times  when  the  power  and  caprice  of 
the  single  individual,  such  as  an  absolute  ruler,  seem  to  shape  the  destiny 
of  nations.^ 

This  pragmatic  method  has  given  way,  since  Herder,  Goethe, 3  and  the 
German  Romanticists  of  the  early  nineteenth  century,  to  the  "genetic" 
method  of  comprehending  the  processes  of  history. 

The  period  following  the  French  Revolution  represents  a  new  era  for 
historians.  Approval  and  reaction  both  fed  the  desire  to  find  a  law  in 
this  fearful,  seemingly  unmotived,  cataclysm.  The  very  failure  of  some  of 
the  ideas  of  the  Revolution,  which  the  few,  the  "rational"  individuals,  had 
attempted  to  foist  on  the  people,  caused  the  defeat  of  rationalism.  The 
great  quarrel  concerning  the  justification  of  "natural  right,"  which  had 
been  proclaimed  by  the  rationalists,  or  of  "traditional  right,"  which  was 
the  outcome  of  slow  organic  growth,  reached  its  culmination.  In  spite  of 
reactionism,  the  will  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people  was  being  awakened; 
peasants  were  freed  from  serfdom;  soldiers  were  no  longer  sold;  and 
slowly  came  the  advance  toward  constitutionalism.  All  this  helped  to 
transform  men's  conceptions  of  history. 

Historic  process  was  now  seen  to  be  a  gradual  growth  produced  by  the 
cumulative,  unconscious  effort  of  an  infinite  number  of  individuals,  as 
well  as  by  natural,  racial,  economic,  social,  cultural,  and  political  causes. 
It  was  recognized  that  in  this  process  the  striking  personalities,  who  had 
formerly  been  thought  to  be  the  real  movers  of  events,  counted  only  as 
"focalized  embodiments"  of  the  forces  of  the  milieu  that  stood  behind 
them.  It  was  clearly  seen  that  the  characters  and  actions  of  the  indi- 
viduals— the  "focalized  embodiments"  of  the  forces  behind  them — were 
thus  determined  inevitably,  and  that  they  therefore  had  little  power  or 

1  Lamprecht,   "Ueber  die  Entwicklungsstufen  der  deutschen  Geschichtswissen- 
schaft,"  Zeitschrift  filr  Kulturgeschichte,  V,  VI. 

2  Bernheim,  24. 

3  Mencke-Glueckert,  Goethe  als  Geschichtsphilosoph. 


6  DEVELOPMENT  OF   THE  HISTORIC  DRAMA 

freedom  or  autonomy  in  the  old  sense.  The  realization  of  law,  of  the 
causal  connection  of  all  phenomena,  of  the  absolute  continuity  of  history, 
a  continuity  not  even  disturbed  by  the  irruption  of  human  volition,  has 
permeated,  more  and  more,  this  genetic  conception  of  the  historic  process. 

Furthermore,  the  actual  operation  of  this  law  of  continuity  could  be 
conceived  as  taking  place  in  either  of  two  ways.  One  class  of  thinkers, 
as  Vico,  Montesquieu,  the  later  Goethe,^  Compte,  Lamprecht,^  accepted 
causality,  but  without  the  accentuation  of  a  conscious  teleological  aim  on 
the  part  of  a  transcendent  planner;  they  endeavored  to  formulate  laws 
of  historic  process  analagous  to  the  laws  discovered  for  the  physical  sciences. 
Another  class.  Herder,  on  the  whole,  Kant,  Schiller,  and  most  dominat- 
ingly,  Hegel,  viewed  the  "world-history"  as  the  conscious  advance  of  the 
"world-spirit." 

No  conception  has  had  as  great  an  influence  in  the  molding  of  historic 
thought  as  Hegel's,  and  it  is  so  abundantly  illustrated  in  historic  dramas 
that  it  is  necessary  to  dwell  a  little  fully  on  Hegel's  thought.  Hegel  con- 
ceived of  an  historic  epoch  as  a  movement,  a  movement  which  is  the  result- 
ant of  complex  opposing  forces  that  are  in  each  case  historically  justified. 
This  movement  is  to  him  merely  a  step  in  the  inevitable  advance  of  the 
"world-spirit"  which  uses  the  individuals,  the  organs  of  their  age,  as 
instalments  in  the  accomplishment  of  its  aim,  the  growth  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  freedom.  In  exposition  of  this  Hegelian  or  "catastrophic"  con- 
ception Droysen  says  that  it 

shows  various  forms,  tendencies,  interests,  parties,  each  with  some  right  on  its 
side,  engaged  in  a  battle,  wherein  the  higher  thought,  whose  elements  or  sides 
display  themselves  in  the  parties  contending  in  the  struggle,  justifies  and  fulfils 
itself  by  vanquishing  and  reconciling  them.^ 

Concerning  the  individual  he  writes. 

Things  take  their  course  in  spite  of  the  will,  good  or  bad,  of  those  through 
whom  they  come  to  pass.  The  continuity  of  history,  its  work  and  its  advance, 
lies  in  the  moral  potencies. *  In  these  potencies  all  have  part,  each  in  his  place. 
Through  them,  mediately,  even  the  meanest  and  poorest  participates  in  the  life 
of  history.     But  even  the  most  highly  endowed  man,  strongest  of  will  and  most 

I  Mencke-Glueckeft,  Goethe  als  Geschichtsphilosoph. 

'  See  Bernheim's  characterization  of  Lamprecht's  method,  Bernheim,  op.  ciL,  660. 
See  also  Mencke-Glueckert,  op.  cit. 

3  Droysen,  52-53  (in  the  translation). 

4  By  moral  potency  is  meant  a  conception  which  is  felt  by  men  to  have  moral 
value  as  an  ideal,  and  which  consequently  acts  as  an  incentive  of  action  and  is  there- 
fore a  determinant  of  historic  development. 


INTRODUCTION  7 

exalted  in  power,  is  only  an  element  in  this  movement  of  the  moral  potencies, 
though  always,  in  his  place,  specially  characteristic  and  efficient.  In  this  role 
only  does  historic  investigation  view  any  man,  not  for  his  own  sake,  but  on 
account  of  the  idea  whose  bearer  he  was.^ 

Although  Hegel's  formula,  with  its  a  priori  disposition  of  the  moments 
of  concrete  history,  was  overworked,  and  consequently  ridiculed  during 
the  reaction  against  Hegel,  still  his  conception  of  the  manner  of  the  his- 
toric march,  his  recognition  of  freedom  as  the  greatest  of  the  moral  potencies 
that  produce  historic  advance,  and  finally,  his  postulation  of  a  state  in 
which  individualism  and  collectivism,  freedom  and  necessity,  should  be 
reconciled,  have  been  essentially  rehabilitated.  Heinrich  Rickert  says  in 
his  article  on  the  "Philosophy  of  Histoiy"  in  the  volume  entitled  The 
Philosophy  of  the  Twentieth  Century, 

For  the  rest,  Hegel's  philosophy  of  history  moves  entirely  in  conceptions 
which  grow  naturally  out  of  immanent  historic  life.  The  great  problem  with 
which  the  philosophy  of  history  of  our  time  must  concern  itself,  is  the  question 
as  to  the  possibility  of  finding,  on  the  basis  of  the  idealism  founded  by  Kant, 
and  with  full  recognition  of  the  results  of  modem  science,  a  value  or  moral  potency 
which  can  serv'e  as  a  central  conception  from  which  universal  history  may  be 
treated  philosophically.  Starting  from  such  a  standpoint,  one  could  arrive  at  a 
philosophy  of  history  which  would  take  into  consideration  the  historic  knowledge 
of  our  day,  but  which  would  in  principle — notwithstanding  differences  of  con- 
tent— show  the  same  formal  structure  as  the  systems  of  Fichte  and  Hegel. - 

These  ideas  concerning  the  processes  of  history  imply,  moreover,  a  feeling 
of  fatalism  produced  by  the  realization  that  the  individual  is  determined 
by  heredity,  by  the  influences  that  come  to  him  from  the  past  and  from 
the  present,  a  feeling  of  fatalism  contained,  also,  in  the  belief  that  the 
"world-spirit"  uses  all  individuals,  good  and  evil,  in  the  working  out  of 
its  great  aim,  and  that  the  evil  individuals  are  necessary  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  this  purpose.  This  is  the  "cunning  of  Reason,"  Hegel  says, 
that  it  lets  the  individuals,  the  "passions,"  work  for  itself. 3 

The  genetic  conception  of  history  has  entailed,  also,  an  entirely  new 
attitude  of  historic  justice  and  objectivity.  A  developed  power  of  imagina- 
tive sympathy,  and  reverence  for  that  which  is  individual,  make  it  possible 
to  feel  the  value  of  each  age,  of  each  people;  and  the  rationalist's  contempt 
of  every  age  that  had  preceded  his  own  age  of  enlightenment  has  given 
way  to  a  Ranke's  sympathetic  appreciations  of  all  times  and  peoples.     It 

1  Droysen,  29-30. 

2  Die  Philosophie  im  zwanzigsten  Jahrhundert,  125,  131. 

3  Hegel,  Einleitung  zur  Philosophie  der  Geschichte. 


8  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

was  the  early  Romanticists  of  Germany  who  first  insisted  that  the  "his- 
torically finite  phenomenon  should,  it  is  true,  be  considered  in  its  connec- 
tion with  the  whole,  but  should  in  no  way  be  robbed  of  its  individual 
value."' 

In  concluding  this  sketch  of  historic  method,  a  few  authoritative  defini- 
tions of  present-day  writers  on  the  subject  are  quoted.  In  these  definitions 
the  science  of  history,  which  deals  with  the  presentation  of  concrete  his- 
toric events,  is  carefully  distinguished  from  the  philosophy  of  history, 
which  aims  to  interpret  the  concrete  facts  by  disengaging  their  underlying 
laws. 

Rickert  says  that  the  true  aim  of  the  historian  is,  not  to  study  events 
for  their  typical  and  pragmatic  value,  but  to  endeavor  "to  grasp  a  movement 
in  its  singleness  and  never-returning  individuality";^  similarly,  he  finds 
that  the  purpose  of  the  science  of  history  is  "the  presentation  of  the  develop- 
ment of  civilization  as  it  occurs  only  once."^  According  to  Lamprecht, 
historic  life  is  seen  to  be  the  "process  by  which  the  potential  force  of  the 
individual  psychology  as  well  as  the  corporate  psychology  of  large  human 
communities  transforms  itself  into  concrete  reality.  "^  Bernheim,  finally, 
declares  "Historic  science  is  the  science  M'hich  studies  the  evolution  of 
men  in  their  (single  as  well  as  typical  and  collective)  activities  as  social 
beings,  and  which  presents  this  evolution  in  its  causal  continuity. "^ 

Of  the  aim  of  the  philosophy  of  history  Rickert  writes, 

One  tries  to  show,  first,  how  large  a  part  history  has  already  embodied  of 
the  moral  potencies,  whose  existence  as  determining  factors  in  the  development 
has  been  substantiated  by  philosophic  criticism;  and  secondly,  one  tries  to  show 
which  have  been  the  great  epochs  of  such  embodiment.  In  this  way  one  is  able 
to  comprehend  where,  in  the  march  of  development,  we  stand  today,  and  where 
we  must  find  our  problem  for  the  future.^ 

The  chief  points,  then,  that  are  important  in  the  modern  conceptions 
of  history  are  first,  the  realization  of  absolute  causal  connection;  secondly, 
the  question  of  teleology  in  this  causal  connection;  thirdly,  the  careful 
determination  of  the  relations  between  mass  power  and  individual  power 
in  molding  events;  fourthly,  the  question  of  the  determinism  or  of  the 
freedom  of  the  individual;  fifthly,  the  growth  of  historic  objectivity  and 
of  the  just  appreciation  of  all  forms  of  civilization;  and  sixthly,  the  appre- 
hension of  historic  figures  as  definite  individuals,  not  as  types. 

1  Poetzsch,  Studien  zur  jruehromantischen  Politik  und  Geschichtsauffassung,  8i. 

2  "Geschichtsphilosophie,"  Die  Philosophic  im  zwanzigsten  Jahrhnndert,  66. 

3  Ibid.,  133.  5  Bernheim,  op.  ciL,  6. 

4  Lamprecht,  Moderne  Geschichie.  ^  Op.  cit.,  133. 


INTRODUCTION  9 

All  of  these  points  are  reflected  in  the  various  historic  dramas,  and  in 
the  discussions  concerning  the  function  of  history  in  the  drama.  More- 
over, although  indeed  many  of  the  historic  dramas  show  a  crossing  of  in- 
fluences, yet  it  is  possible  to  recognize  that  the  chief  types  of  historic  drama 
correspond  to  the  recitative,  the  pragmatic,  and  the  genetic  methods  of 
interpreting  concrete  history,  and  to  the  point  of  view  illustrated  in  the 
philosophy  of  history.' 

I  A  similar  phenomenon  can  be  traced  in  historic  novels.  Cf.,  for  instance,  the 
novels  of  Walter  Scott  and  his  followers  in  Germany,  Riehl's  Culturgeschichtliche 
Novellen;  Viebig's  Das  schlajende  Heer;  Meyer's  Angela  Borgia;  Barthels'  Die 
Dithmarschen. 


PART  I 

DEDUCTION  OF  THE  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  HISTORIC 
DRAMA  ON  THE  BASIS  OF  THEORETICAL  DISCUSSION 
ON  THE  RELATION  BETWEEN  HISTORY  AND  THE 
DRAMA^ 

Greece  had  no  drama  in  which  the  historic  event  or  the  historic  picture 

or  personality  were  the  raison  d^etre.     Aeschylus'  Persians,  the  only  extant 

_  play  on  an  historic  subject,  was  not   essentially  different 

from  non-historic  dramas,  and  presented  merely  the 
typical  tale  of  punished  pride.  Accordingly,  Aristotle's  dramaturgical 
program  shows  no  comprehension  of  the  use  of  history  in  the  drama. 
Thus  he  says  "that  it  is  not  the  province  of  the  drama  to  relate  what 
has  actually  happened,  but  what  may  happen,"  and  that  poetry  speaks 
of  the  "universal,"  history  alone  of  the  "particular."^ 

The  drama  of  Rome  is  similar  to  that  of  Greece;  in  spite  of  the 
Iragoediae  pretextae  on  subjects  such  as  Cato,  Brutus,  Nero,  Octavia,  it 

produced  no  play  historic  in  aim,  and  no  new  theory. 

Octavia,  the  only  play  of  this  type  that  is  extant,  is  again, 
in  spite  of  its  references  to  events  of  imperial  Roman  history,  only  a 
play  whose  theme  is  that  of  the  typical  suffering  of  a  typical  character; 
there  is  no  attempt  at  definite  individualization. 

The  Chronicle  History  plays  that  were  written  in  England  during 
the  sixteenth  century  represent  the  first  manifestation  of  real  historic 

drama.     In  spirit,  as  in   technique,  they  differ  entirely 

from  the  "tragedy."  They  consciously  show  a  decided 
interest  in  events  because  they  were  supposed  to  be  "true,"  especially  if 
they  were  strange  as  well  as  true.  Thus  many  of  them  are  advertised 
in  the  titles  as  being  a  "true  tragedy,"  or  a  "true  chronicle  history," 
of  this  or  that  interesting  personality.^     These  plays  are  always  a  strange 

'  In  the  following  discussion  the  endeavor  is  made  to  draw  conclusions  from  the 
theories  of  the  dramatists,  not  from  their  practice;  hence  the  lack  of  congruity  between 
theory  and  practice  is  not,  where  it  occurs,  taken  into  consideration.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  practice,  in  so  far  as  it  illuminates  the  theory,  is  constantly  kept  in  mind. 

2  Aristotle,  Poetics,  ix,  xxiii,  xv. 

3  For  expression  of  this  spirit  see  the  use  of  the  word  "true"  "n  titles  and  adver- 
tisements of  plays:  The  True  Tragedy  oj  Richard  Duke  of  York;  The  True  Chronicle 
Historie  oj  King  Leir.  As  late  as  1634  Ford  commends  Perkin  Warbeck  as  a  "strange 
truth."  In  the  case  of  the  legendary  Lear,  it  must  be  remembered  that  his  story  was 
at  that  time  considered  true  history. 

10 


/ 


^^^  I 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  II 

mixture  of  historic  and  pseudo-historic  elements;  of  interest  in  true  historic 
events,  and  in  romance,  adventure,  horseplay,  passion,  and  blood  and 
thunder.'  In  this  respect  they  very  largely  resemble  the  historic  writing  of 
their  day,  vi^ith  its  recitative,  or  at  most,  pragmatic  spirit.^  Hence  it  is 
natural  that  no  theoretical  discussion  accompanied  the  naive  creation  of 
these  plays,  that  the  writers  of  them  had  little  conception  of  deeper  causal 
connection  or  of  unified  organization  of  the  material,  and  that  their  concep- 
tion of  history,  as  well  as  of  the  function  of  history  in  the  drama,  is  entirely 
crude. 

For  a  long  time  the  spirit  and  technique  of  the  Chronicle  play  dominated 
dramatic  creation.  The  epic  structure  was  popularly  used  in  dramatizing 
antique  and  foreign,  as  well  as  English,  history.  Such  is  the  case  in 
Marlowe's  Massacre  of  Paris,  and  in  Lodge's  Wounds  of  Civil  War. 
Gradually,  however,  this  structure  came  to  be  tabooed,  and  Ford,  when 
he  tried  to  renew  the  species  in  his  Per  kin  Warbeck,  felt  an  apology 
necessary.  Thus  he  defends  his  use  of  the  Chronicle  technique  in  the 
words  "We  cannot  limit  scenes,  for  the  whole  land  Itself  appeared  too 
narrow  to  withstand  Competitors  for  kingdoms."^  The  old  Chronicle 
spirit  is  shown  in  his  advertisement  of  this  play  as  "A  History  known, 
Famous,  and  true."-*  Ford's  interest,  however,  is  a  belated  phenomenon. 
The  old  historic  spirit  and  the  epic  technique  that  had  been  character- 
istic of  the  Chronicle  Histories  became  ever  rarer. 

It  is  true  that  after  the  sixteenth  century  the  custom  of  making  historic 
personalities  the  heroes  of  dramas  became  very  common  in  every  country; 
but  this  frequent  choice  of  historic  subject,  even  when  taken  from  con- 
temporary history,  as  in  the  case  of  Glapthorne's  Alhertus  Wallenstein,  or 
Gryphius'  Carolus  Stuardus,  is  no  longer  due,  usually  and  in  the  main,  to 
genuine  historic  interest.  It  is  due,  rather,  to  the  tradition,  and  possibly 
to  the  belief,  fostered  by  the  example  of  the  supposedly  Senecan  Octavia, 
and  by  a  misunderstood  Aristotle,  that  the  heroes  of  tragedies  should  be 
distinguished  personalities  whose  lives  have  shown  reversals  of  fortune, 
reversals  merited,  usually,  in  consequence  of  overweening  pride.  Thus 
this  theme  of  punished  Hybris,  which  had  seemed  to  the  antique  world  the 
essentially  tragic  theme,  and  which  had  acted  as  a  formative  principle  in 

1  On  the  English  historic  drama  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  see 
especially  Schelling,  The  English  Chronicle  Plays,  and  The  Elizabethan  Drama.  For 
a  fuller  discussion  cf.  below,  Part  IV. 

2  Cf.  the  Introduction. 

3  Prologue  to  Perkin  Warbeck. 

4  Ibid. 


12  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

the  antique  arrangement  of  dramatic  as  well  as  of  historic  writing,  became 
a  favorite  theme,  also,  of  modern  historic  writing  and  of  the  modern 
drama.'  Furthermore,  the  Senecan  structure,  and  the  dicta  of  Aristotle 
that  the  poet  deals  not  with  what  has  actually  happened,  but  with  that 
which  might  logically  happen;  with  personalities  conceived  as  types, 
not  as  particular  individuals;  and  with  the  sufferings  and  fortitude 
incident  upon  the  reversals  of  fortune  of  distinguished  individuals — these 
were  universally  accepted.  Such  was  the  case  in  France,  especially  after 
the  example  of  Corneille,  whose  Discours  concerning  dramatic  technique 
were  written  in  1638,  and  thence  in  European  countries  generally.  For 
this  reason  the  discussion  of  the  province  of  history  in  the  drama  is  rare 
before  the  time  of  Lessing,  Goethe,  and  Schiller,  a  time  when  a  new  efflores- 
cence of  the  drama  coincided  with  the  new  movement  in  the  conception  of 
histoiy. 

Sidney  writes  in  his  Apologie  for  Poetrie  (1581),  "Tragedie  is  tied  to 
the  laws  of  Poesie,  and  not  of  Historic,  [and  is]  not  bound  to  follow  the 
stone,  but  ha\dng  liberty  ....  to  frame  the  historie  to  its  most 
tragicall  convenience."  He  merely  revoices  Aristotle.^  There  is 
no  discussion  in  Ben  Jonson's  Timber,  although  his  Sejanus  (1603) 
and  his  Catiline  (i6ii)  show  conscious  effort  at  archaeological 
accuracy  in  the  use  of  facts  given  by  the  Roman  historians.  Chap- 
man, in  his  "Epistle  Dedicatory"  to  the  Revenge  of  Bussy  d'Ambois  (1604), 
says  distinctly  that  historic  truth  is  not  his  object.  "And  for  the  authen- 
tical  truth  of  either  person  or  action,  who  ....  will  expect  it  in  a  poem 
whose  subject  is  not  truth,  but  things  like  truth?"  He  thinks  that  the 
purpose  of  tragedy  is  instruction,  especially  instruction  in  the  virtue  of 
loyalty.  Dryden  says  nothing  on  the  point  in  his  Essay  of  Dramatic 
Poesy  (1667),  nor  in  the  Defense;  but  in  the  "Vindication"  of  his  drama 
The  Duke  of  Guise,  he  remarks  that  "where  the  action  is  remarkable  and 
the  very  words  related,  the  poet  is  not  at  liberty  to  change  them  much."^ 
In  The  Tragedies  of  the  Last  Age,  John  Rymer  (1678)  demands  that  the 
plots  of  tragedy  should  be  taken  from  history.  Yet  the  history  given 
in  the  heroic  plays  to  which  he  refers  is  notoriously  false.  Addison, 
in  the  Spectator  of  1711,  in  his  discussion  of  tragedy,  does  not  mention 

'  Cf.  the  Mirror  jor  Magistrates;  Chapman's  plays  on  the  Duhe  oj  Byron,  Bussy 
d'Ambois;  Ben  Jonson's  Sejanus;  Fletcher  and  Massinger's  Jan  van  Olden  Barnevelt; 
Glapthorne's  Alhertus  Wallenstein,  and  many  others. 

2  Sidney,  Apologie  for  Poetrie,  35  ff.,  64. 

3  Nevertheless  this  drama  has  political  purpose,  and  illustrates  the  pragmatic 
tendency  to  base  political  intrigue  on  the  love  and  hate  motives  of  the  boudoir.  See 
also  Courthope,  II,  431  ff. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  13 

the  point.'  The  only  recognition  of  the  historic  drama  as  a  distinct 
species  with  a  distinctive  technique  is  found  in  Samuel  Johnson's  criti- 
cisms of  Shakespeare's  Histories  in  his  Preface  to  Shakespeare,  written  in 
1768.  He  here  defines  a  History  as  a  "series  of  actions,  with  no  other 
than  chronological  succession,  independent  of  each  other."  He  says  of 
the  history  that,  "as  it  had  no  plan,  it  had  no  limits,"  and  adds  that  the 
histories,  being  "neither  tragedies  nor  comedies,  are  not  subject  to  any 

of  their  laws The  incidents  should  be  various  and  afifecting.     No 

other  unity  is  sought."  He  remarks  that  in  Shakespeare  the  line  between 
history  and  tragedy  is  not  always  strictly  observed.  He  also  believes 
that  Shakespeare  planned  his  histories  as  a  whole,  and  that  this  whole 
was  divided  up  merely  for  the  purposes  of  stage  presentation.  Johnson's 
liberality  of  judgment  concerning  the  technique  of  an  historic  play  is  surely 
without  a  parallel.  But  commendable  as  is  this  liberality  as  being  the 
first  requisite  of  the  ability  to  appreciate  types  of  literary  form,  in  this 
case  it  is  unjust  to  what  Shakespeare  really  gave,  and  does  not  lead  on 
to  a  true  conception  of  historic  drama. 

The  account  of  the  English  discussion  concerning  the  relation  between 
history  and  the  drama  is  here  interrupted  because  we  have  now  approached 
the  date  of  Lessing's  criticisms.  After  a  brief  sketch  of  the  meager  French 
references  to  the  subject,  a  careful  treatment  of  the  very  full  German  dis- 
cussions will  be  given,  and  finally  a  brief  reference  to  later  and  likewise 
meager  English  theory. 

There  is  not  much  serious  discussion  of  the  problem  in  France.  Cor- 
neille,  who  uses  historic  personalities  and  events  freely  and  for  poetic  illus- 
^  tration  of  his  stoical  philosophy,  in  his  three  Discours  of  1 638 

says  of  the  writer  of  historic  drama  merely,  "II  pent  bien 
choquer  la  vraisemblance  particuliere  par  quelque  alteration  de  I'histoire, 
mais  non  pas  se  dispenser  de  la  generale,  que  rarement."  His  criterion  of 
historic  changes  is  mere  probability,  hence,  if  the  historic  facts  are  not  known 
to  spectators,  the  changes  can  be  made  more  freely.  He  finds  a  difficulty  in 
crowding  the  necessarily  more  numerous  events  of  an  historic  plot  into  one 
day,  and  counsels  a  vague  time  and  place.  In  Corneille's  case  it  is  well  known 
that  he  never  aimed  at  writing  real  historic  drama. ^  Boileau,  in  his  Uart 
poetique  (1674),  merely  speaks  of  the  value  of  giving  accurate  local  color.^ 

1  Spectator,  39,  40,  42,  44,  45. 

2  See  Lanson's  book  on  Corneille.  Corneille's  discussion  is  found  in  "Discours 
du  poeme  dramatique";  "Discours  de  la  tragedie";  "Discours  des  trois  Unites," 
(Euvres,  I,  52  ff.,  95  ff. 

3  Uart  poetique,"  chant  iii,  p.  68. 


14  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

Voltaire  seemed  to  his  contemporaries  to  have  given  a  new  type  of  historic 
drama  in  La  viort  de  Cesar  (1735)  and  in  Rome  sauvee  (1752).  Here  they 
found  an  interest  other  than  that  of  the  conventional  love  and  intrigue  that 
had  seemed  the  indispensable  requisite  of  the  drama.  This  interest  was 
analyzed  as  "le  plaisir  d'etre  temoin  ....  d'une  revolution  qui  fait 
epoque  dans  I'histoire,"  as  opposed  to  an  individualistic  interest  in  a  single 
person  or  even  family.  At  the  same  time  scorn  is  expressed  for 
Shakespeare's  Julius  Caesar  and  for  his  English  Histories,  "ou  il  n'y  a  ni 
unite  ni  raison,  .  .  .  .  ovi  I'histoire  est  conservee  jusqu'  a  la  minutie,  et  les 
moeurs  alterees  jusqu'au  ridicule."'  We  find  here  the  accentuation  of 
the  accuracy  of  the  mcBurs  already  suggested  in  Boileau.  Voltaire  himself, 
the  pioneer  of  KuUurgeschichte,  insisted  on  this  very  point  in  his  Preface 
to  Rome  sauvee:^  "Les  savants  ne  trouveront  pas  ici  une  histoire  fidele  de 
la  conjuration  de  Catilina;  ils  sont  assez  persuades  qu'une  tragedie  n'est 
pas  une  histoire;  mais  ils  y  verront  une  peinture  vraie  des  moeurs  de  ce 
temps-la."  He  insists  also  on  the  fact  that  his  characters  are  true,  though 
the  events  are  fictitious.  "Tout  ce  que  Ciceron,  Catilina,  Caton,  Cesar, 
ont  fait  dans  cette  piece  n'est  pas  vrai;  mais  leur  genie  et  leur  charactere 
sont  peints  fidelement."  He  will  feel  rewarded  if  his  work  "fait  connaitre 
un  peu  I'ancienne  Rome."  This  position  of  Voltaire's  regarding  the  his- 
torical character  and  the  historical  actions  is  not  different  from  Lessing's. 
He  has,  however,  more  genuine  historic  intention  than  Lessing.  This  is 
shown  also  in  his  criticisms  of  Corneille's  Essex,  and  of  Rodogune,  etc.  In 
the  matter  of  mcBurs  Lessing  has  opposing  views.  Indeed,  as  will  be  devel- 
oped subsequently,  Lessing's  discussion  is  largely  aroused  by  opposition 
to  Voltaire's  criticisms  of  these  plays. 

In  Germany  before  the  time  of  Lessing  one  finds  in  many  plays  a  naive 

enjo}ment   of  historic  reality   similar  to   that  illustrated  in  the  English 

Chronicle  Histories.      The  problem  of  the  relation  be- 

trerniany  tween   history   and    the   drama  is  not  discussed,   not  in 

beiore  Jjcssiiis' 

Opitz'   Buck    von   der  deutschen   Poeterei    (1624),    nor  in 

Gottsched's  Kritische  Dichtkunst  (1730).  Gottsched  gives  expression, 
however,  to  an  idea  which  points  along  the  line  of  the  later  concep- 
tion of  the  corporate  historic  drama.  He  says,  "Die  Handlung  muss 
wuchtig  sein,  das  ist,  nicht  einzelne  Personen,  Haeuser,  oder  Staedte, 
sondern  ganze  Laender  betreffen."^     In  1767  Klopstock  boasts  in  a  letter 

I  "  Avertissement  des  editeurs  de  Kehl,"  written  about  1782,  (Eiivres  de  Voltaire, 
VI,  341-42. 

'  Ibid.,  VI,  343  f^-    ■ 
3  Gottsohed,  op.  cit.,  IV. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  1 5 

• 

referring  to  his  Bardieten  on  Hermann,  that  he  has  observed  historic  truth 
more  than  "sonst  Dichter."^ 

Gottsched  and  the  writers  of  the  Bremer  Beitraege  counseled  the  choice 
of  national  subjects,  especially  for  the  purpose  of  awakening  German 
patriotism.  This,  of  course,  reflects  the  spirit  of  the  pragmatic  method  of 
writing  histor}%  and  is  closely  connected  with  the  whole  rationalistic  theory, 
expressed  particularly  by  Sulzer,  that  a  work  of  art  should  aim  at  moral 
betterment. 

The  first  critic  who  endeavored  definitely  to  consider  the  relation  of 
history  to  the  drama,  and  its  use  in  dramatic  work,  who  first  recognized 
this  matter  as  a  problem  to  be  clarified,  and  who  first  gave 
definite,  repeated,  and  elaborated  expression  to  his  theories, 
is  Lessing.  He,  however,  although  criticizing  the  French  drama,  did  not 
really  understand  Shakespeare,  whom  he  admired,^  and  so  gives  only  a 
reinterpretation  of  Aristotle.  Incited  to  opposition  by  Voltaire's  criticisms 
on  historic  dramas  such  as  Thomas  Corneille's  Essex  and  as  Rodogune, 
he  declares  that  Aristotle  is  as  infallible  as  Euclid, ^  and  that  he  has  long  ago 
decided  in  how  far  the  dramatist  should  concern  himself  with  history."* 
He  says,  "Der  dramatische  Dichter  ist  kein  Geschichtschreiber  .  .  .  .  er 
erzaehlt  nicht  was  man  ehedem  geglaubt  dass  es  geschehen,  sondern  er 
laesst  es  nochmals  ....  geschehen,  nicht  bloss  der  historischen  Wahrheit 
wegen,  sondern  in  einer  ganz  anderen  und  hoeheren  Absicht;  die  historische 
Wahrheit  ist  nicht  sein  Zweck,  sondern  nur  das  Mittel  zu  seinem  Zwecke."s 
An  historic  period  may  be  reproduced  altogether  inaccurately,  the  real 
intention  being  to  give  a  picture  of  the  manners  of  the  writer's  own  land.*^ 
Local  color  is  not  necessarj/,  and  often  not  even  desirable,  since,  if  the  com- 
prehensible and  customary  manners  of  one's  own  time  are  given,  it  is  much 
easier  for  the  audience  to  enter  into  the  mood  of  the  drama.  ^  That,  he 
thinks,  is  the  reason  why  the  Greeks  always  reproduced  Greek  and  not 
barbarian  customs,  as  is  especially  noticeable  in  Aeschylus'  The  Persians.^ 
He  doubts  whether  the  study  of  history  is  good  for  the  tragic  poet;^   and 

I  Briefe,  September  15,  1767. 

"  Bulthaupt,  II,  9;    M.L.  Notes  (June,  1904),  pp.  232-49,  article  by  Meisnest. 

3  Hamburgische  Dramaturgie,  100-4. 

^Ibid.,  II,  17,  19,  23,  25,  31,  42. 

5  Ibid.,  II. 

(>  Ibid.,  17.  This  he  applies  particularly  to  the  comedy,  ibid.,  72,  97.  In  Dr.  1 
he  criticizes  inaccuracy  in  an  image  placed  in  a  mosque  contrary  to  the  Mohammedan 
custom. 

7  Ibid.,  17,  97.  8  75 jj  9  ibid,^  42. 


1 6  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

says  that  he  may  invent  or  minimize  historic  facts/  and  that  verification 
of  the  history  given  in  the  drama  is  futile  and  uncalled  for.^  He  considers 
the  historic  fable  to  be  a  ready-found  labor-saving  expedient,  to  be  taken 
if  it  fits  the  poet's  intentions  ;3  the  historic  facts,  he  declares,  can  be  treated 
with  the  utmost  freedom.-* 

Moreover,  the  chief  interest  is  not  in  the  fable  but  in  the  character 
found  in  history,  and  history  is  merely  a  repertory  of  names  which  one  has 
come  to  associate  with  certain  characters  ;S  the  historic  name  is  chosen 
because  the  historic  character  coincides  with  the  character  that  the  poet  has 
decided  to  portray;'^  for  this  reason  the  characters  chosen  are  sacred.' 
These  characters  are  to  be  represented  as  types,  not  as  specific  individuals 
in  whom  one  is  interested  because  they  have  actually  lived.  Therefore 
he  who  pictures  a  Cato,  a  Caesar,  without  showing  that  their  individual 
characteristics  flow  from  their  characters  as  topical,  universally  human 
characters  common  to  others  besides  themselves,  is  degrading  tragedy  into 
history.^  The  drama  represents,  not  what  this  or  that  individual  has 
actually  done,  but  what  any  man  of  a  certain  type  would  do  under  certain 
circumstances. 9 

Although  Lessing  realizes  that  in  the  real  world  of  large  connections 
there  is  divine  law  in  the  seemingly  accidental,  he  declares  that  God 
alone  can  see  the  causal  connection  in  so  large  a  picture.  He  insists 
that  in  the  drama  the  poet,  who  chooses  a  smaller  section,  must  give  to 
nature  boundaries  which  she  has  not  in  reality,'"  and  must  construct  a  whole 
in  which  everything  is  perfectly  motived  and  arranged  in  accordance  with 
his  purposes."     He  writes: 

In  der  Natur  ist  alias  mit  allem  verbunden Aber  nach  dieser  unendlichen 

Mannigfaltigkeit  ist  sie  nur  ein  Schauspiel  fuer  einen  unendlichen  Geist."  .... 
In  (dem  ewigen  unendlichen  Zusammenhang  aller  Dinge)  ....  ist  Weisheit  und 
Guete,  was  uns  in  den  wenigen  Gliedem,  die  der  Dichter  herausnimmt,  blindes 
Geschick  und  Grausamkeit  scheinet.  Aus  diesen  wenigen  Gliedem  sollte  er  ein 
Ganzes  machen,  ....  wo  eines  aus  dem  anderen  sich  erklaeret.'^ 

Thus,  then,  the  fact  that  an  undeserved  catastrophe  has  happened  to  an 
individual  in  history  is  no  argument  for  introducing  it  into  the  drama;  here 

1  Hamburgische  Dramaturgic,  31,  23. 

2  Ibid.,  23,  24.  8  Ibid.,  89. 
i  Ibid.,  19.  f  Ibid.,  19. 
*Ibid.,  21,  31,  II,  97,  70.  ^°Ibid.,  107. 

s  Ibid.,  24.  "  Ibid.,  19,  34;  also  16. 

^  Ibid.,  23.  "  Ibid.,  70. 

7  Ibid.,  23,  33.  13  Ibid.,  19,  79. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  1 7 

it  would  seem  like  blind  fate  and  cruelty.'  Hence,  in  order  to  make  a 
logical  connection  between  his  character  and  his  fate,  the  hero  must  be 
guilty  of  some  fault.  "Folglich  muessen  ....  Verdienst  und  Unglueck 
in  bestaendigem  Verhaeltniss  bleiben."^  "  Unterdessen  ist  es  wahr,  dass 
an  dem  Helden  ein  gewisser  Fehler  sein  muss,  durch  den  er  sein  Unglueck 
ueber  sich  gebracht  hat."-5  Referring  to  dramas  in  which  the  catastrophes 
are  unmotived,  he  quotes  a  remark  that  a  certain  heroine's  cause  of  death 
is  the  fifth  act.4 

Thus  the  chief  points  which  Lessing  has  brought  to  discussion  are: 
(i)  the  question  of  historic  fidelity  as  applied  to  the  event,  to  the  character, 
and  to  the  setting  or  "moeurs";  (2)  the  question  as  to  whether  the  charac- 
terization should  be  typical  or  individualistic;  (3)  the  question  of  strict 
causal  motivation,  especially  the  motivation  of  the  hero's  castrophe  from 
a  fault  or  guilt  of  his,  rather  than  the  acceptance  of  an  actual  event  motived 
by  a  larger,  and  less  visible,  historic  necessity. 

From  this  time  on  the  theories  concerning  the  historic  drama  and  the 
dramas  themselves  reflect  the  tendencies  that  found  a  culmination  and  a 
new  departure  in  the  French  Revolution.  Schiller  and  Goethe  never  came 
to  understand  how  this  catastrophic  outburst  was,  after  all,  the  inevitable 
result  of  complex  causes,  and  the}'  therefore  had  no  real  sympathy  for  the 
movement.  The  younger  generation  however,  was  deeply  affected  by 
the  continued  advance  of  democracj'.  As  suggested  in  the  Introduction, 
an  entirely  new  conception  of  historic  necessity,  of  fate,  of  the  tragic  motif 
inherent  in  all  historic  development,  grew  up.  Events  might  at  first  seem 
like  chance,  inscrutable,  uncomprehended — so  the  death  of  Louis  XVI — 
but  those  that  looked  more  deeply  felt  in  it  all  only  the  inevitable  working 
out  of  eternal  law  manifested  in  the  real  historic  march  of  things.  Many 
shuddered  at  the  "Fate"  that  had  shown  itself  in  the  mighty  "falls  of 
princes";  nature  seemed  lawless,  demonic,  a  cruel  sphynx;  this  conception 
found  expression  in  the  German  fate-tragedies  of  the  time.  The  great 
historic  thinkers,  however,  showed  that  after  all  fate  was  reasonable,  a  fate 
of  historic  necessity,  advancing  in  grand  strides,  comprehended  only  when 
whole  ages  were  taken  into  consideration.  The  fact  that  the  mass  and 
not  the  individual  is  the  real  master  of  history  was  felt  by  Napoleon  himself. 
He  wrote,  "I  was  never  my  own  master,  but  was  always  steered  by  con- 
ditions  I  was  never  the  master  of  my  actions,  because  I  was  never 

so  foolish  as  to  wish  to  submit  events  to  my  system. "s     The  insight  that 

1  Hamhtirgische  Dramaturgic,  79.  3  An  Mendelssohn,  Br.  55. 

2  An  Nicolai,  Br.  53.  4  Hamb.  Dram.  2. 
s  Correspondence  de  Napoleon,  XXXIII,  303. 


1 8  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

history  is  the  procluct  of  slow  organic  growth  was  accompanied  by  a  reali- 
zation of  popular  and  national  consciousness,  and  a  feeling  of  the  sacredness 
of  the  state.  This  again  tended  toward  collectivism;  the  whole,  the  mass, 
society,  not  the  individual,  became  the  chief  interest.  On  one  side  there 
is  a  greater  appreciation  of  the  individual;  on  the  other  side,  the  individual, 
every  individual,  becomes  subordinated  to  a  collective  whole. 

When  young  Goethe  in  Strassburg  was  filled  with  enthusiasm  for 
Germany  and  the  German  past,  his  patriotic  mood  caught  fire  upon  reading 
Shakespeare's  Histories,  and  in  his  Goetz  von  Berlicliingen 
he  not  only  renewed  the  species,  but  instinctively  hit  upon 
the  only  way  in  which  the  Chronicle  type  could  be  organized  if  it  were  to 
be  developed  along  its  own  line.  This  he  did  by  selecting  as  the  principle 
of  unity  a  period  of  history  in  which  great  mass  tendencies,  representing 
two  epochs,  came  into  conflict;  that  is,  by  selecting  what  Goethe  called 
an  important  "turning-point"  in  the  "history  of  nations."'  The  "turning- 
point"  in  the  case  of  Goetz  was  the  epoch  of  conflict  between  the  age  of 
robber-knight  individualism  and  individualistic  redress  of  wrong  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  new  age  which  stood,  however  imperfectly,  for  order 
assured  by  codified  law  on  the  other  hand.  Goethe  was  interested  not 
only  in  the  frank,  strong,  individualistic  Goetz  and  in  his  love-troubled 
Weisslingen,^  but  in  this  historic  movement  broadly  conceived,  and  in  the 
rich  historic  setting.  In  later  reference  to  Goetz  von  Berlicliingen  he  realizes 
himself  that  in  this  drama  a  new  species  has  been  created. •^  The  choice 
of  Egmont  showed  the  same  selection  of  a  "turning-point. "4  Goethe 
analyzed  the  movement  involved  in  Egmont — the  conflict  between  Dutch 
democracy  and  Spanish  despotism — as  "  festgegruendete  Zustaende  die 
sich  vor  strenger,  wohlberechneter  Despotie  nicht  halten  koennen."s  Hav- 
ing thus  selected  these  two  subjects,  he  even  planned  more  historic  plays. 
He  says,  "Ich  hatte  vor,  mich  von  diesem  Wendepunkt  der  deutschen 
Geschichte  [referring  to  Goetz]  vor  und  rueckwaerts  zu  bewegen.""^  It 
is  significant  that  Goethe  criticizes  the  "  Ritterdramen "  because  they  did 
not  select  important  movements.  He  says,  "Nach  Goetz  ging  man  ins 
Privatleben."^ 

I  Wahrheil  und  Dichtung,  XIX,  end,  and  XIII  ( Weimar- Ausgabe,  XXIX,   162, 
and  XXVIII,  206). 

'  Ibid.,  and  Book  XX. 

3  Eckermann,  Gespraeche  mil  Goethe,  III,  209,  6. 

4  Wahrheit  und  Dichtung,  XIX,  end  (W.-A.,  XXIX,  162). 

5  Ihid.  6  ibid,^  XIII  (W.-A.,  XXVIII,  206). 
7  Eckermann,  Gespraeche  mit  Goethe,  II,  205. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS 


19 


Although  in  Goetz  von  Berlichingen  Goethe's  sympathy  lies,  unhistori- 
cally,  with  the  conquered  robber-knight  indiWdualism,  the  Hegelian  con- 
ception of  an  historic  epoch  as  a  movement,  or  conflict  of  antithetical  forces 
out  of  which  a  higher  synthesis  follows,  is  foreshadowed  when  he  speaks 
of  the  struggle  in  Egmont.  Here  the  attractive  but  undisciplined  spirit 
of  freedom  of  the  Dutch  falls  before  the  hated  despotism  of  the  Spaniard; 
but  the  final  result,  Goethe  says,  will  be  a  third  condition,  which  will  meet 
the  desires  of  all.  Thus  he  speaks  of  "das  Daemonische  was  von  beiden 
Seiten  im  Spiel  ist,  in  welchem  Conflict  das  Liebenswuerdige  untergeht 
und  das  Gehasste  triumphirt,  sodann  die  Aussicht,  das  hieraus  ein  Drittes 
hervorgehe,  das  dem  Wunsch  aller  Menschen  entsprechen  werde."^ 

Goethe  also  realized  the  power  of  the  mass  in  compelling  even  the  great 
individual's  action,  as  is  suggested  in  Margarete  von  Parma's  words,  "Was 
sind  wir  Grossen  auf  der  Woge  der  Menschheit  ?  Wir  glauben  sie  zu 
beherrschen,  und  sie  treibt  uns  auf  und  nieder,  hin  und  her."^  This  power, 
he  believes,  is  seen  especially  in  the  influence  of  the  environment  in  molding 
the  individual;  he  recognizes  a  constant  struggle  between  individual  and 
milieu  in  the  development  of  character,  and  being  born  ten  years  sooner  or 
later  makes  a  difference. ^  Therefore  he  consciously  gave  in  Goetz  a  rich 
and  varied  picture  of  the  time  in  which  the  hero  lived;  he  speaks  of  having 
presented  him  in  his  "Zeitumgebung."^  From  this  point  of  view  he  criti- 
cizes Shakespeare  because  his  Romans  are  only  Englishmen.  He  speaks 
of  having  aimed  to  show  that  the  external  forces  which  had  produced 
Goetz's  "  anarchischen  Freiheitssinn"  were  the  result  of  "jener  Zeit- 
epoche."5 

Nevertheless  Goethe's  chief  interest  in  these  plaj/S  was  individualistic, 
not  corporate.  Goetz  and  Egmont  were  singled  out  as  symbolic  types  in 
which  their  respective  world-epochs  were  mirrored.'^  Of  Egmont  he  says, 
"und  als  Hauptfigur,  um  welche  sich  alle  uebrigen  am  gluecklichsten 
versammeln  liessen,  war  mir  Graf  Egmont  aufgefallen,  dessen  menschlich 
ritterliche   Groesse   mir   am   meisten  behagte."^     Similarly,   in   Goethe's 

1  Wahrkeit  und  Dichtimg,  XX  (W.-A.,  XXIX,  175  f.). 

2  Egmont,  I,  sc.  2. 

3  Goethe,  Gedichte,  "Urworte  Orphisch";  Mencke-Glueckert,  Goethe  als  Ge- 
schichtsphilosoph,  77. 

4  Wahrkeit  und  Dichtimg,  XII  (W.-A.,  XXVIII,  123). 

s  Graef,  Goethe  ueber  seine  Dichttmgen;  Drama,  III,  78. 
6  Wahrkeit  und  Dichtung,  XIX,  end  (W.-A.,  XXIX,  162). 
Tlbid.,  XX  (W.-A.,  XXIX,  174  f.). 


20  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA 

theory  of  historic  advance,  the  great  individual  seems  to  him  to  be  the  real 
mover.' 

Goethe  has  some  realization  of  the  fact  that  the  structure  of  the  historic 
drama  makes  different  technical  demands  than  does  the  "tragedy"; 
he  says  that  in  working  on  Goetz  he  felt  himself  driven  to  the  "historische 
Behandlungsart,"  and  he  recognized  that  this  was  due  to  the  effort  to 
give  the  events  accurately.-  He  says,  "Meine  Einbildungskraft  dehnte  sich 
dergestalt  aus,  dass  auch  meine  dramatische  Form  alle  Theatergrenzen 
ueberschritt  und  sich  den  lebendigen  Ereignissen  zu  naehern  suchte." 
He  makes  quite  a  point  of  having  desired  to  give  true  history.  "Meine 
dramatische  Form  [suchte]  sich  den  lebendigen  Ereignissen  mehr  und  mehr 
zu  naehern."-'  "Ich  hielt  mich  sehr  treu  an  die  Geschichte,  und  strebte 
nach  moeglicher  Wahrheit.""*  He  says  that  when  he  altered  Goetz  to  give 
to  this  play  more  unity,  he  "suchte  ihm  immer  mehr  historischen  und 
nationalen  Gehalt  zu  geben,  und  das,  was  daran  fabelhaft  oder  bloss 
leidenschaftlich  war,  auszuloeschen."^  He  also  speaks  of  having  carefully 
studied  the  sources  of  the  subjects  of  the  two  dramas."^  Even  in  treating 
the  mass  he  demands  accuracy  of  individualization,  for  he  criticizes  Shake- 
speare because  "his  Romans  are  only  Englishmen. "^  Nevertheless  he 
has  no  respect  for  historic  character  or  fact  if  he  is  more  interested  in  a 
certain  type  of  personality.  So  he  changes  Egmont,  desiring  to  illustrate 
in  him  "Das  Daemonische,"^  and  vigorously  defends  the  right  to  make 
changes  from  historic  truth. ^ 

After  Goetz  and  Egmoyit,  Goethe  lost  his  interest  in  the  definitely  indi- 
vidualized, bewildering  manifoldness  of  historic  life,  and  sought  rather 
a  principle  that  would  help  him  to  unify  phenomena;  so  he  finds  a  type, 
an  "Urtypus"  which  appears  in  age  after  age,  to  be  modified,  but  not 
changed,  by  the  definite  milieus ^°  This  is,  indeed,  very  different  from 
the  rationalist  conception  of  types  isolated  from  an  environment,  yet  it 
leads  him  away  from  the  realistic  movement-drama,  especially  as  he  thinks 
that  individualized  history  is  not  poetical. 

1  Mencke-Glueckert,  67,  84;  Goethe,  Gedichte,  "Sprueche  in  Prosa,"  272; 
Materialien  zur  Geschichte  der  Farbenlehre  (W.-A.)  II,  3. 

2  Wahrheit  und  Dichtung,  XIII  (W.-A.,  XXVIII,  197). 

3  Ibid.  4Eck.,  I,  128. 

s  Wahrheit  und  Dichtung,  XIII  (W.-A.,  XXVIII,  200). 

6  Ibid.,  XX  (W.-A.,  XXIX,  174). 

7  Eck.,  Ill,  226. 

8  Wahrheit  und  Dichtung,  XX  (W.-A.,  XXIX,  174  f.). 

9  Eck.,  I,  225.  1°  Cf.  Mencke-GIueckert. 


DEDUCTION  or  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  21 

Es  ist  gar  keine  Frage  dass  wenn  die  Geschichte  das  simple  Faktum,  den 
nackten  Gegenstand  hergibt,  und  der  Dichter  Stoff  und  Behandlung,  so  ist  man 
besser  imd  bequemer  dran,  als  wenn  man  sich  des  ausfuehrlicheren  und  um- 
staendlicheren  der  Geschichte  bedienen  soil;  denn  da  wird  man  immer  genoetigt 
das  Besondere  des  Zustandes  aufzunehmen;  man  entfemt  sich  von  dem  rein 
Menschlichen,  und  die  Poesie  kommt  ins  Gedraenge.' 

Not  only  individuals  but  also  the  epochs  of  history  are  conceived  in 
their  typical  significance,  as  ever-returning  stages  of  a  Kreislauf  in  historic 
development.^  If,  v^hen  he  speaks  of  the  Natuerliche  Tochter  as  a 
"Kuenstlerversuch,  der  nach  einer  Aufioesung  einer  noch  nie  geloesten 
Aufgabe  strebte,"^  one  remembers  that  he  meant  to  represent  the  genesis 
of  a  revolution,  it  seems  as  though  he  were  here  thinking  of  it  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  symbolical,  typical  process-drama,  and  of  this  type  as  a 
new  conception. 

Goethe,  on  the  whole,  believes  in  the  determinism  of  the  individual,  and 
contrasts  himself  with  Schiller  in  this  respect,  saying,  "Er  predigte  das 
Evangelium  der  Freiheit,  ich  woUte  die  Rechte  der  Natur  nicht  verkuerzt 
wissen."4  Goethe  finds  it  impossible  to  solve  the  problem  of  the  relation 
between  the  volition  of  the  individual's  given  nature,  and  his  volition  as 
determined  by  environment  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  all-compelling  laws 
of  external  nature  on  the  other  hand;  he  accepts  each  of  these  phases  as  a 
reality  in  the  molding  of  man's  life.  In  Urworte  Orphisch  he  says  under 
"Daemon,"  that  from  birth  man  develops  "nach  dem  Gesetz  wonach  du 
angetreten.  So  musst  du  sein,  dir  kannst  du  nicht  entfliehen."  He  then 
says,  under  "Tyche,"  "Die  strenge  Grenze  doch  umgeht  gefaellig  Ein 
Wandelndes,  das  mit  und  um  uns  wandelt;  Nicht  einsam  bleibst  du, 
bildest  dich  gesellig."  Finally,  under  "Ananke"  he  writes,  "Da  ist's 
denn  wieder,  wie  die  Sterne  woUten,  Bedingung  und  Gesetz,  und  aller 
Wille  Ist  nur  ein  WoUen,  weil  wir  eben  sollten,  Und  vor  dem  Willen 
schweigt  die  Willkuer  stille."  Man's  given  nature,  his  "entschiedene 
Natur,"  he  identifies  with  fate;S  he  likes  best  to  call  it  "das  Daemonische," 
and  considers  it  to  be  a  mysterious  expression  of  the  all-compelling,  uncom- 
prehended  laws  of  nature.  Although  his  "entschiedene  Natur"  leads 
man  blindly  "da  oder  dorthin,"  he  says  concerning  "Nature,"  "Man 

1  An  Schiller,  August  21,  1799. 

2  Cf.  Mencke-Glueckert. 

3  Eck.  I,  256;  Graef,  Goethe  ueber  seine  Dichhmgen;  Drama,  III,  537-55- 

4  In  the  essay  "Einwirkung  der  neueren  Philosphie"  contained  in  the  group  of 
essays  Zur  Naturwissenschafl  im  Allgemeinen  in  the  volume  Naturwissenschaf tliches . 

5  An  Schiller,  April  26,  1797. 


22  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA 

gehorcht  ihren  Gesetzen,  auch  wenn  man  ihncn  widerstrebt ;    man  wirkt 

mit  ihr,  auch  wenn  man  gegen  sie  wirken  will Sie  ist  listig,  aber 

zum  guten  Ziele Alles  ist  ihre  Schuld,  alles  ist  ihr  Verdienst."' 

This  last  point  reminds  one  of  Hegel's  words  on  "die  List  der  Vernunft."^ 
Again  Goethe  says,  "Nach  ewigen,  ehernen  Grossen  Gesetzen  Muessen 
wir  alle  Unseres  Daseins  Kreise  vollenden."^  Temporal  justice  does  not 
characterize  this  world-law.  "Auch  so  das  Glueck  Tappt  unter  die 
Menge,  Fasst  bald  des  Knaben  Lockige  Unschuld,  Bald  auch  den  kahlen 
Schuldigen   Scheitel."-* 

In  harmony  with  these  views,  Goethe  applied  no  theory  of  guilt  and 
merited  catastrophe  to  the  plot  of  the  drama.  In  Goetz  he  desired  to  show 
just  the  helplessness  and  defeat  of  the  "  well-meaning "  individual. ^  Here? 
as  in  Egmont,  he  carries  out  the  idea  which  is  expressed  much  later,  and  which 
has  been  partially  quoted  above,  that  "im  Trauerspiel  kann  und  soli  das 
Schicksal,  oder  welches  einerlei  ist,  die  entschiedene  Natur  des  Menschen, 
die  ihn  blind  da  oder  dorthin  fuehrt,  walten  und  herrschen."^  Thus 
Goethe  realized  the  inevitableness  of  human  action  as  determined  by 
character  and  environment,  and  felt  the  deep  tragic  quality  that  lies  in 
historic  actuality  and  necessity,  unmodified  by  any  theory  of  tragic  guilt 
and  recompense. 

Goethe's  knowledge  and  love  of  history  thus  led  to  the  writing  of 
Goetz,  Egmont,  Faust  I,  Die  natuerliche  Tochter,  and  he  suggests  many 
points  that  are  of  vital  importance  in  the  development  of  the  conception 
of  the  historic  drama;  yet  he  never  worked  out  a  definite  theory  of  this 
species.  It  must  be  confessed  that  his  interest  in  the  dominating  indi- 
viduals was  greater  than  his  historic  interest  in  movements,  and  that  his 
interest  in  them  as  types  of  character  became  so  absorbing  that  he  inten- 
tionally disregarded  and  changed  known  historic  fact.  Nevertheless,  when 
one  compares  these  three  dramas  and  his  theories  with  those  of  Lessing, 
one  recognizes  easily  the  gulf  that  separates  the  two  men;  the  importance 
and  originality  of  Goethe's  achievement,  and  his  dominating  position  in 
the  story  of  the  development  of  the  historic  drama. ' 

1  In  Zur  Naturwissenschaft  im  Allgemeinen,  the  essay  "Ueber  die  Natur." 

2  See  p.  7. 

3  Goethe,  Gedichte,  "Das  GoettUche."  4  Ihid.,  "Urworte  Orphisch." 
5  Wahrheit  mid  Dichlung  (W.-A.,  XXVIII,  123). 

^  An  Schiller,  April  26,  1797. 

7  The  fact  that  Goethe's  remarks  on  Goetz  and  Egmont  all  belong  to  a  much 
later  period,  does  not,  I  think,  invalidate  the  conclusions  drawn  from  them.  Nor 
does  the  fact  that  his  views  on  the  subject  of  nature  and  determinism  varied  at  different 
times  affect  the  present  argument. 


DEDUCTION   OF   CHIEF   PROBLEMS  .    23 

The  chief  contributions  made  by  Goethe  to  the  theory  of  the  historic 
drama  are:  (i)  the  discovery  that  complex  historic  material  in  the  drama 
can  be  unified  and  organized  by  conceiving  of  it  as  a  conflict  of  opposed 
historic  tendencies;  (2)  the  idea  that  broad  and  accurate  mass  setting  is 
necessary;  (3)  the  substitution  of  historic  inevitableness  for  narrow  logical 
motivation  and  for  the  connection  of  catastrophe  with  guilt. 

Schiller  was  a  historian  as  well  as  a  poet,  and  with  this  equipment 
comes  to  his  task  of  writing  drama.  His  conception  of  history  was  in  the 
_  main  that  of  the  pragmatist  who  is  interested  most  in  leading 

individuals/  who  deduces  motives  of  action  from  individuals 
rather  than  from  conditions,^  and  who  uses  history  for  the  purpose  of 
teaching  lessons.  He  shared  with  the  rationalists  the  realization  of  causal 
connection  and  teleology,  and  accepted  Kant's  formulation  of  the  principle 
of  development.  "Unser  menschliches  Jahrhundert  herbeizufuehren 
haben  sich  alle  vorhergehenden  Zeitalter  angestrengt."^  Schiller's  atti- 
tude toward  life  determines  the  nature  of  his  interest  in  history.  He  says, 
"das  Leben  ist  nie  fuer  sich  selbst,  .  .  .  .  nie  als  Zweck,  nur  als  Mittel 
zur  Sittlichkeit  v\dchtig."'»  So  he  sees  in  history  a  great  struggle  of 
the  natural  forces  with  one  another  and  with  man's  moral  freedom,  a 
struggle  which  leads  on  to  a  gradual  attainment  of  full  freedom. 

Die  Welt  als  historischer  Gegenstand  ist  im  Grunde  nichts  anderes  als  der 
Conflict  der  Naturkraefte  unter  einander  selbst  und  mit  der  Freiheit  des  Menschen, 
und  den  Erfolg  dieses  Kampfes  berichtet  uns  die  Geschichte.s     Aus   diesem 

Gesichtspunkte  ....  ist  mir  die  Weltgeschichte  ein  erhabenes  Object 

Die  Weltgeschichte  ist  desshalb  von  Interesse  weil  sie  Muster  des  Erhabenen 
geben  kann.^ 

Thus  history  seems  merely  to  give  examples  of  distinguished  individuals 
who  showed  this  struggle.    It  served  as  "ein  Magazin  "  for  his  "  Phantasie."  "> 

1  An  Koerner,  April  15,  1786.  Schiller  enjoys  the  Thirty  Years'  War  because 
it  was  a  time  of  great  men. 

2  Cf.  F.  Ueberweg,  Schiller  als  Historiker  und  Philosoph,  114. 

3  An  Koerner,  June  7,  1788.  Schiller  believes  that  he  can  find  a  "Notwendig- 
keit"  in  the  seeming  "  Willkuer"  of  history.    Compare  Ueberweg,  106.    See  Schiller's 

"Was  heisst  und  zu  welchem  Ende  studirt  man  Universalgeschichte,"  Bellermann's 
Schillers  Werke,  Vol.  XIII.  Ueberweg,  107,  says  that  Schiller  came  more  and  more 
to  appreciate  the  "Vorstufen"  as  well  as  the  eighteenth-century  consummation.  This 
is  seen  in  his  essay  on  the  Crusades. 

4"Ueber  den  Grund  des  Vergnuegens  an  tragischen  Gegenstaenden,"  Beller- 
mann,  VIII,  22. 

s  "Ueber  das  Erhabene,"  Bellermann,  VIII,  430. 

6  "Was  heisst  und  zu  welchem  Ende,"  etc. 

7  An  Caroline  von  Beulewitz,  December  10,  1788. 


24  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

To  Koerner  he  writes  that  histoiy  will  be  the  "Magazin  woraus  ich 
schoepfe."'  He  found,  then,  in  history,  illustrations  of  "das  Erhabene," 
and  this  "Erhabene,"  which  was  the  raison  d'etre  of  life  and  human  history, 
is  the  subject  of  "tragedy."^ 

More  consciously  than  Goethe,  Schiller  desired  almost  always  to  write 
a  "tragedy."  This  meant  to  him  the  presentation  of  suffering,^  in  order 
to  awaken  pity  and  fear,  especially  pity;^  the  deeper  purpose  is  to  give 
an  example  of  the  struggle  of  man's  moral  nature  with  his  physical  nature, 
in  order  to  show  man's  "moralische  Independenz  von  Naturgesetzen,"^ 
and  thereby,  since  "das  Pathetische  .  .  .  .  ist  eine  Inoculation  des 
unvermeidlichen  Schicksals  wodurch  es  seiner  Boesartigkeit  beraubt  .... 
wird,"*^  to  teach  man  to  transcend  the  physical  compulsion  in  order 
to  affirm  the  moral  necessity. 

This  attitude  of  Schiller's  toward  history  and  the  drama  makes  it  a 
matter  of  course  that  he  agrees  with  Aristotle  and  Lessing  on  the  relation 
between  history  and  the  drama. '     Of  Aristotle  he  says, 

Wie  er  die  Poesie  und  die  Geschichte  mit  einander  vergleicht,  und  jener  eine 

groessere  Wahrheit  zugesteht,  das  hat  mich  ....  gefreut Es  ist  gleich- 

falls  recht  gescheidt,  was  er  zum  Vorteil  wahrer  historischer  Namen  bei  drama- 
tischen  Personen  sagt.^ 

He  opposes  "servile  gemeine  Naturnachahmung  im  Drama. "^  Again 
he  says, 

Der  Neuere  schlaegt  sich  muehselig  mit  Zufaelligkeiten  und  Nebendingen 
herum,  und  ueber  dem  Bestreben,  der  Wirklichkeit  recht  nahe  zu  kommen, 
beladet  er  sich  mit  dem  Leeren  und  Unbedeutenden,  und  darueber  laeuft  er 
Gefahr,  die  tiefliegende  Wahrheit  zu  verlieren,  worin  eigentlich  alles  Poetische 
liegt.     Er  moechte  gem  einen  wirklichen   Fall  vollkommen   nachahmen   und 

'  An  Koerner,  July  27,  1788. 

'  This  reminds  one  of  Fichte's  attitude  toward  the  universe  as  the  material  of 
duty. 

3  "Ueber  das  Pathetische";  "Ueber  die  tragische  Kunst";  "Ueber  den  Grund 
dcs  Vergnuegens  an  tragischen  Gegenstaenden " ;  Ueber  das  Erhabene";  also  the 
other  philosophical  essays,  Bellermann,  VIII;  also  many  remarks  in  letters. 

4  In  "Ueber  die  tragische  Kunst,"  especially  on  pp.  48,  50,  53,  54. 

s  "Ueber  das  Pathetische,"  Bellermann,  VIII,  iig;  "Ueber  das  Erhabene," 
ibid.,  430. 

^  "Ueber  das  Erhabene,"  ibid.,  432. 

7  "Vorrede"  to  Fiesco,  Bellermann,  II,  170.      Many   references    in    the    letters. 

8  An  Goethe,  May  10,  1797. 
0  Ibid.,  December  29,  1797. 


DEDUCTION   OF   CHIEF    PROBLEMS  25 

bedenkt  nicht,  dass  eine  poetische  Darstellung  mit  der  Wirklichkeit,  eben  darum, 
weil  sie  absolut  wahr  ist,  niemals  coincidiren  kann.' 

Just  so  Schiller  had  sought  even  in  history  not  the  ordinary  "historisc he 
Wahrheit,"  but  the  "philosophische"  or  "Kunstwahrheit."^  He  writes, 
"Selbst  an  wirklichen  Begebenheiten  historischer  Personen  ist  nicht  die 
Existenz,  sondern  das  durch  die  Existenz  kund  gewordene  Vermoegen  das 
Poetische. "3  In  consequence  of  this  he  expects  to  be  a  poor  source  for 
later  historians  to  refer  to,  "aber  ich  werde  vielleicht  auf  Unkosten  der 
historischen  Wahrheit  Leser  und  Hoerer  finden.''^ 
He  complains  that  it  is  narrow 

den  Tragoediendichter  unter  das  Tribunal  der  Geschichte  zu  ziehen,  ....  der 
sich  schon  vermoege  seines  Namens  bloss  zu  Ruehrungen  ....  verbindlich 
macht.5  ....  Die  Tragoedie  ....  ist  poetische  Nachahmung  einer  mitleids- 
wuerdigen  Handlung,  und  dadurch  wird  sie  der  historischen  entgegengesetzt.  Das 
wuerde  sie  sein,  wenn  sie  ...  .  darauf  ausginge,  von  geschehenen  Dingen  und 
von  der  Art  ihres  Geschehens  zu  entwickeln.  In  diesem  Falle  muesste  sie  sich 
streng  an  historische  Richtigkeit  halten,  weil  sie  einzig  nur  durch  treue  Darstellung 
des  wirklich  Geschehenen  ihre  Absicht  erreichte.     Aber  die  Tragoedie  hat  einen 

poetischen  Zweck,  sie  stellt  eine  Handlung  dar,  um  zu  ruehren Behandelt 

sie  also  einen  gegebenen  Stoflf  nach  diesem  Zweck,  so  wird  sie  ....  in  der 
Nachahmung  frei;  sie  erhaelt  Macht,  ja  Verbindlichkeit  die  historische  Wahrheit 
den  Gesetzen  der  Dichtkunst  unterzuordnen  und  den  gegebenen  Stoff  nach  ihrem 
Beduerfniss  zu  bearbeiten.*^ 

Although  he  almost  always  selects  the  subjects  of  his  dramas  from 
history,  he  thinks  it  best 

immernur  die  allgemeine  Situation,  die  Zeit,  und  die  Personen  aus  der  Geschichte 
zu  nehmen,  und  alles  Uebrige  poetisch  fjei  zu  erfinden,  wodurch  eine  mittlere 
Gattung  von  Stoflfen  entstuende,  welche  die  Vorteile  des  historischen  Dramas  mit 
dem  erdichteten  vereinigte.^ 

Thus  he  openly  disclaims  wanting  to  write  a  real  historic  drama,  as 
he  had  already  said  concerning  Fiesco. 

Der  Genueser  Fiesco  soUte  zu  dem  Fiesco  meines  Trauerspiels  nichts  her- 
geben  als  den  Namen  und  die  Maske;  ich  bin  nicht  Geschichtsschreiber,  und  eine 

I  An  Goethe,  April  4,  1797.  Compare  also  the  discussion  in  the  preface  to  the 
Braut  von  Messina.  This  point  of  the  typical  presentation  of  action  and  individuals 
will  be  discussed  below. 

»  An  Caroline  von  Beulewitz,  December  10,  1788. 

3  "Ueber  d.  Path.,"  B.,  VIII,  144- 

4  An  Car.  v.  B.,  December  10,  1788.  ^  Ibid. 

s  "Ueber  d.  tr.  K.,"  B.,  VIII,  51.  7  An  Goethe,  August  20,  1799. 


26  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

einzige  Aufwallung,  die  ich  durch  cine  gewagte  Erdichtung  in  der  Brust  meiner 
Zuschauer  bewirke,  wiegt  bei  mir  die  strengste  historische  Genauigkeit  auf.' 

Schiller  speaks  of  his  own  dramatic  form,  with  its  modified  history,  as  a 
"mittlere  Gattung  von  Stoffen,"  and  contrasts  this  with  the  historic  drama 
properly  speaking,  and  with  that  which  is  wholly  invented.^  The  purpose 
of  such  an  historic  drama  would  be  "von  geschehenen  Dingen  und  von  der 
Art  ihres  Geschehens  zu  entwickeln.  In  diesem  Falle  muesste  sie  sich  streng 
an  die  historische  Richtigkeit  halten  weil  sie  einzig  nur  durch  treue  Darstel- 
lung  des  wirklich  Geschehenen  ihre  Zwecke  erreichte."^  An  illustration 
of  this  type  he  recognizes  in  Fust  von  Stromberg,  and  he  is  forced  to  confess, 

Auch  ist  nicht  zu  laeugnen  dass  solche  Compositionen,  sobald  man  ihnen 
die  poetische  Wirkung  eriaesst,  cine  andere,  allerdings  sehr  schaetzbare,  leisten, 
denn  keine  noch  so  gut  geschriebene  Geschichte  konnte  so  lebhaft  und  so  sinnlich 
in  jene  Zeit  hineinfuehren,  als  dieses  Stueck  es  tut.'^  ....  So  ist  mir  ....  in 
dem  ....  "Fust  von  Stromberg"  eine  ganze  und  sprechende  Vorstellung  des 
Mittelalters  entgegengekommen,  welche  offenbar  nur  der  Effect  einer  blossen 
Gelehrsamkeit  war.s 

He  feels  that  "der  Umstand  dass  diese  Personen  wirklich  lebten,  und 
dass  diese  Begebenheiten  wirklich  erfolgten"  can  increase  one's  pleasure, 
"aber  mit  einem  fremdartigen  Zusatz.'"^  His  theory  of  the  poetic  naturally 
makes  him  deny  this  quality  to  the  species ;  still  he  finds  in  it  both  value 
and  pleasure.  In  the  critique  of  Egmont  he  also  praises  the  well-rendered 
spirit  of  the  historic  period  pictured,  and  the  accurately  reproduced  mass.^ 
Although  Schiller  recognizes  a  type  of  drama  historic  in  purpose,  he  never 
endeavors  to  think  out  the  full  possibilities  and  value  and  laws  of  this 
species,  and  never  attempts  to  write  one,  except  perhaps  Wilhelm  Tell,  where 
he  feels  that  he  must  show  the  inevitableness  of  "ein  beinahe  indivi- 
duelles  und  einziges  Phaenomen."^ 

Schiller  had  little  joy  in  political  transactions,  in  what  he  called  "Staats- 
aktionen,"  not  in  history,  and  not  in  the  drama.  When  reading  Watson's 
History  of  the  Netherlands,  the  spirit  of  freedom  involved  aroused  an 
enthusiasm  in  him  "zu  welcher  Staatsaktionen  nur  selten  erheben";^   his 

'  An  Goethe,  August  20,  1799. 

2  "Ueber  d.  tr.  K.,"  B.,  VIII,  51.  *  An  Goethe,  March  13,  1798. 

3  Ibid.  5  Ibid. 

6  "Ueber  d.  Path.,"  Bellermann,  VIII,  144. 

7  "Recension  ueber  Egmont,"  ibid. 

8  An  Koerner,  September  9,  1802. 

9  "Vorrede"  to  Geschichte  des  Ah  jails  der  Niederlande. 


DEDUCTION   OF   CHIEF   PROBLEMS  27 

interest  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War  is  due  to  a  similar  motive,  and  to  the  fact 
that  it  gives  a  picture  of  many  great  men.'  Contrasting  his  own  indi- 
vidualistic interest  with  Koerner's  treatment  of  the  Fronde  and  referring 
to  Koerner's  criticism  of  his  History  of  the  Revolt  of  the  Netherlands, 
he  says,  "wo  war  ich  in  der  Lage,  ich,  ein  grosses  historisches  Ganze 
mit  einem  reifen  Blick  zu  umfassen?"^  This  inability  or  unwillingness  to 
apprehend  an  historic  movement  as  such  and  as  a  logically  connected 
whole,  was  the  cause  of  his  dislike  of  political  plots  as  such.  If  even  in 
his  historic  writing  he  had  sought  to  give  chiefly  "Kunstwahrheit,"  he 
felt  this  requirement  still  more  in  the  case  of  his  dramatic  writing.  The 
purely  historical  treatment  of  the  past  always  seemed  unpoetical.  This 
he  reiterates  over  and  over.  In  the  critique  of  Egmont  he  saj'S  that  it  is 
clear  "wie  wenig  sich  Staatsaktionen  dramatisch  behandeln  lassen."^ 
The  Wallenstein  material  causes  him  much  trouble  because  it  is 

im  Grunde  eine  Staatsaktion,  und  hat,  in  Ruecksicht  auf  den  poetischen  Gebrauch, 
alle  Unarten  an  sich  die  eine  politische  Handlung  nur  haben  kann,  ein  unsicht- 
bares,  abstraktes  Object,  kleine  und  viele  Mittel,  zerstreute  Handlungen,  einen 
furchtsamen  Schritt,  eine  fuer  den  Vorteil  der  Poeten  viel  zu  kalte  trockene 
Zweckmaessigkeit,  ohne  doch  diese  bis  zur  Vollendung  und  dadurch  zu  einer 
poetischen  Groesse  zu  treiben.*  ....  Du  glaubst  nicht,  was  es  .  .  .  .  kostet 
.  .  .  .  eine  so  duerre  Staatsaktion  in  eine  menschliche  Handlung  umzuschaflFen.s 

It  requires  a  great  deal  of  manipulation  before  it  is  "zur  Tragoedie 
qualificirt."'^  "Nur  durch  eine  kunstreiche  Handlung  kann  ich  ihn  zu 
einer  schoenen  Tragoedie  machen."^  Writing  about  Maria  Stuart,  he  is 
glad  that  the  political  part  is  previous  to  the  play  itself  ;8  he  speaks  of  his 
poetical  struggle  with  the  history  in  Maria  Stuart,  how  he  had  to  select  care- 
fully what  could  be  utilized.  ^  Concerning  Die  Jungfrau  von  Orleans  he 
writes,  "das  Historische  ist  ueberwunden  und  doch  ....  in  seinem 
moeglichsten  Umfang  benutzt."'°  Wilhelm  Tell  also  seems  difficult  to 
handle  because  it  is  a  "Staatsaktion." 

Ob  nun  gleich  der  Tell  einer  dramatischen  Behandlung  nichts  weniger  als 
guenstig  erscheint,  da  die  Handlung  dem  Ort  und  der  Zeit  nach  ganz  zerstreut 

I  An  K.,  April  15,  1786. 
'  Ibid.,  December  i,  1788. 

3  "Recension  ueber  Egmont,"  Bell.,  XIII,  301. 

4  An  K.,  November  28,  1 796. 

s  Ibid.,  July  10,  1797.  ^  An  G.,  April  26,  1799. 

6  An  G.,  November  18,  1796.  o  Ibid.,  July  19,  1799. 

7  An  K.,  November  28,  1796.  1°  Ibid.,  December  24,  1800. 


28  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

auseinander  licgt,  da  sie  grossenteils  cine  Staalsaklion  ist  und  (das  Maerchen 
rait  dcm  Hut  und  Apfel  ausgenommen)  der  Darstellung  widerstrebt,  so  habe  ich 
doch  bis  jetzt  so  viel  poetische  Operation  damil  vorgenommen,  dass  sie  aus  dem 
Historischen  heraus  und  ins  Poetische  eingetreten  ist.' 

Schiller's  opposition  to  definite  historic  fact  is  connected  also  with  his 
acceptance  of  the  Platonic  doctrine  of  ideas.  "Was  sich  nie  und  nirgends 
hat  begeben,  das  allein  veraltet  nie."^  This  is  related  to  his  interest  in 
types  and  in  the  typical.  "Wahrheit"  and  not  " Wirklichkeit "  has  true 
existence. 3  "Die  poetische  Wahrheit  besteht  nicht  darin,  dass  etwas 
wirklich  geschehen  ist,  sondern  darin,  dass  es  geschehen  konnte."4 
Through  his  study  of  history  he  learns  to  know  men,  not  the  individual  man, 
"die  Gattung  und  nicht  das  sich  so  leicht  verlierende  Individuum."^  In 
his  review  of  Buerger  he  says,  "Dichter  ist  wer  das  Individuelle  und  Lokale 
zum  Allgemeinen  erhebt."^  To  him  "Personen  sind  allgemeine  Symbole"; 
the  Greek  "idealische  Masken"  are  commended  as  against  the  "Indi- 
viduen"  of  Shakespeare  and  Goethe. ^  Shakespeare's  treatment  of  the  mass 
in  Julius  Caesar  he  praises  because  it  is  typical  and  because  he  appre- 
hends the  mass  as  "poetisches  Abstraktum,"  not  as  "Individuen."^  The 
fact  that  the  movement  involved  in  Wilhelm  Tell  was  individual  rather  than 
typical  gave  him  much  trouble,  "weil  hier  ein  ganzes  local -begrenztes  Volk, 
ein  ganzes  und  entferntes  Zeitalter,  und  was  die  Hauptsache  ist,  ein  ganz 
oertliches,  ja  beinahe  individuelles  und  einziges  Phaenomen,  mit  dem 
Charakter  der  hoechsten  Notwendigkeit  und  Wahrheit  soil  zur  Anschauung 
gebracht  werden."^  Thus  in  theory  Schiller  is  opposed  to  giving  just 
that  which  makes  the  essence  of  historic  reality,  namely  the  individual 
singleness  of  a  phenomenon.  For  this  reason  the  most  difficult  part  of  his 
labors,  after  having  selected  an  historic  theme,  was  the  attempt  to  eliminate 
everything  that  was  individual  in  his  subject,  and  the  finding  of  the  typical 
and  symbolical  meaning  of  the  characters  and  plots  chosen.  Whenever 
he  thought  that  he  had  at  last  cut  away  all  political  and  specific  elements 
and  motives,  he  wrote  rejoicingl)  to  Koerner  or  Goethe.  That,  after  all, 
he  did  not  succeed  in  being  absolutely  typical  in  his  treatment  is  shown  by 

I  An  K.,  September  9,  1802.  '  "An  die  Freude." 

3  An  Caroline  von  Beulewitz,  December  10,  1788;  Preface  to  Braut  von  Messina; 
An  G.,  April  4,  1797. 

4  "Ueber  d.  Path.,"  B.,  VIII,  144. 

5  An  C.  V.  B.,  December  10,  1788-  7  An  Goethe,  April  4,  1797. 

6  "Ueber  Buerger,"  Bellermann,  VIII.  «  An  G.,  April  7,  1797.  • 
9  An  K.,  September  9,  1802.      Otto  Ludwig's  Werke  (Stern),  V,  304. 


DEDUCTION   OF   CHIEF   PROBLEMS  29 

the  possibility  of  Otto  Ludwig's  criticism  of  Wallenstein  as  "krankhaft 
individueil."^ 

Lessing  had  demanded  that  the  drama  should  not  reproduce  events 
as  they  actually  happen  to  individuals  in  the  real  world  of  history  where 
divine  law,  if  understood  in  its  large  connections,  could  explain  even  the 
seemingly  accidental;  he  had  demanded  that  the  drama  should  submit 
the  small  section  of  life  chosen  to  rigid  visible  logical  connection,  so  that  no 
hero  should  be  visited  with  an  undeserved  calamity.  Schiller  accepts  this 
dictum,  and  explains  his  reason  for  having  Fiesco  punished  by  Verrina 
instead  of  allowing  him  to  die  by  accident  as  he  did  in  reality,  in  the  follow- 
ing words:  "Die  Natur  des  Dramas  duldet  den  Finger  des  Ungefaehrs 
....  nicht.  Hoehere  Geister  sehen  die  zarten  Spinnweben  einer  Tat 
durch  die  ganze  Dehnung  des  Weltsystems  laufen  ....  wo  der  Mensch 

nichts  als  das  in  freien  Lueften  schwebende  Faktum  sieht Aber 

der  Kuenstler  waehlt  fuer  das  kurze  Gesicht  der  Menschheit."^  Similarly 
he  says  that  the  higher  perfection  "kann  in  unserer  jetzigen  Beschraenkung 
von  uns  nicht  gefasst  werden.  Wir  uebersehen  einen  zu  kleinen  Teil  des 
Weltalls,  und  die  Aufloesung  der  groesseren  Menge  von  Misstoenen  ist 
unserem  Ohr  unerreichbar";  the  work  of  art  must  show  the  causal  con- 
nection. 3 

Although  Schiller  always  tabooed  chance  or  accident  in  the  drama, 
still  his  idea  of  the  relation  between  guilt  and  catastrophe  became  less 
elementary.  Thus  on  the  one  hand,  since  the  tragic  existed  only  when 
man  showed  his  moral  independence  of  natural  law,  and  his  agreement  with 
necessity — "Nehmt  die  Gottheit  auf  in  euren  Willen,  und  sie  steigt  von 
ihrem  Weltentron"^ — he  demands  in  1792  that  the  poet  should  present 
catastrophes  as  caused  "durch  den  Zwang  der  Umstaende,"s  and  writes, 
"so  schwaecht  es  jeder  Zeit  unseren  Anteil,  wenn  sich  der  Unglueckliche, 
den  wir  bemitleiden  soUen,  aus  eigener  unverzeihlicher  Schuld  ins  Ver- 
derben  gestuerzt  hat."^  Hence  a  guiltless  hero — as  Max  in  Wallenstein — 
might  be  visited  with  a  catastrophe.  On  the  other  hand  Schiller  demands 
that  even  in  the  case  of  the  guilty  or  indifferent  hero — as  Wallenstein — 

I  Cf.  Ludwig's  Werke,  V,  304.  2  Vorrede  to  Fiesco,  B.,  II. 

3  Philosophische  Brieje,  "Raphael  an  Julius,"  letzter  Brief. 

4  "Das  Ideal  und  das  Leben."  Cf.  "Der  Mensch  muss  ....  den  Begriff  der 
Gewalt  vernichten,  obgleich  er  in  der  Tat  leidet"  ("Ueber  d.  trag.  Kunst"),  and 
"Die  Kuenstler."  "Mit  dem  Geschick  in  hoher  Einigkeit  empfaengt  er  das  Geschoss 
das  ihn  bedraeut." 

5  "Ueber  d.  tr.  K.,"  B.,  VIII.     Viscber  objected  to  this;    see  below. 

6  Ibid.,  38. 


30  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA 

the  catastrophe  should  be  caused  by  external  circumstances  and  not  b> 
the  guilt  of  the  hero.  Wallenstein  was  written  during  the  first  years  of 
the  friendship  between  Goethe  and  Schiller,  when  Schiller  was  impressed 
with  Goethe's  belief  that  in  the  drama  the  hero's  given  nature,  whether 
moral  or  not,  should  drive  him  blindly  hither  and  thither,  and  that  this 
given  nature  is  identical  with  "fate."  In  this  sense  Schiller  says,  "Recht 
stets  behaelt  das  Schicksal,  denn  das  Herz  In  uns  ist  sein  gebieterischer 
Vollstrecker."'  Accordingly  Wallenstein,  who,  he  writes,  needs  "ge^ade 
so  viel  moralischen  Gehalt  als  noetig  ist  um  Furcht  und  Mitleid  zu 
erwecken,"^  lives  out  the  impulse  of  his  nature  without  giving  the  theoreti- 
cally demanded  illustration  of  "das  Erhabene."  Like  Goethe,  Schiller 
sees  that  the  given  character  is  in  part  due  to  the  historic  environment,  and 
so  the  guilt  is  in  this  case  even  ascribed,  in  its  larger  proportion,  to  what 
Schiller  calls  variously  the  "unglueckseligen  Gestirne,"^  or  "Umstaende," 
or  "Schicksal";  in  other  words,  to  the  specific  historic  conditions  that 
determined  inevitably  the  character  and  the  event. ^  Only  a  small  propor- 
tion of  responsibility  is  left  to  the  hero  in  the  matter  of  exhibiting  moral 
freedom.  From  a  similar  point  of  view  Schiller  in  his  Thirty  Years'  War, 
after  the  brilliantly  pragmatic  account  of  Wallenstein  as  a  conscious  plan- 
ner, had  ended  the  account  with  a  splendid  historical  intuition  which  later 
investigation  has  borne  out,  "er  rebellirte  weil  er  fiel."^  The  relation 
between  guilt  and  punishment  has,  then,  in  the  case  of  Wallenstein  become 
very  subtly  confused. 

This  presentation  of  catastrophe  without  guilt  in  the  one  case,  and  the 
shifting  of  the  guilt  in  the  other  case,  meant  the  acceptance  in  the  drama  as  in 
life  of  the  larger,  less  obvious  motivation  rejected  for  Fiesco,  and  led  Schiller 
to  a  deeper  analysis  of  simple  historic  actuality  and  necessity.  The  Greek  at- 
titude of  resignation  to  fate  had  seemed  to  him  humiliating  "  fuer  .  .  .  .  freie 
....  Wesen,"^  but  at  the  same  time  he  had  realized  that  this  resignation 
might  consist  in  the  "  Ahndung,  oder  in  deutlichem  Bewusstsein  einer  teleo- 
logischen  Verknuepfung  der  Dinge."'  The  recognition  that  Wallenstein 
rebelled  because  he  had  fallen — fall  and  rebellion  and  Wallenstein's  character 
being  necessary  results  of  conditions — coincided,  as  previously  stated,  with 
his  aim  to  show  in  tragedy  the  motive  power  of  "circumstances."     When  first 

I  Wallensteins  Tod,  I,  7. 

=  An  Koerner,  July  13,  1800. 

3  "Prolog"  to  Wallenstein.  4  See  following  paragraph. 

s  Geschichte  des  dreissigjaehrigen  Krieges,  Book  IV,  end. 

6  "Ueber  d.  tr.  K.,"  BeUermann,  VIII,  40. 

7  Ibid. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  3 1 

working  on  Wallenstein  he  writes,  "das  eigentliche  Schicksal  tut  noch  zu 
wenig,  und  der  eigene  Fehler  des  Helden  noch  zu  viel  zu  seinem  Unglueck."' 
Although  he  says,  "Am  Ende  mislingt  der  Entwurf  nur  durch  Ungeschick- 
lichkeit,"  he  also  adds  that  Wallenstein  falls  in  consequence  of  the  much 
more  subtle  combination  of  the  "Stimmung  der  Armee,  der  Hof,  der 
Kaiser."^  He  is  pleased  when  at  last  he  can  say,  "Da  der  Hauptcharakter 
eigentlich  retardirend  ist,  so  tun  die  Umstaende  alles  zur  Krise,  und  dies 
wird,  wie  ich  denke,  den  tragischen  Eindruck  sehr  erhoehen."^  In  order 
to  show  the  genetic  motivation  of  Wallenstein's  character  and  catastrophe 
from  circumstances,  he  gives  a  picture  of  the  army,  as  the  "Base  worauf 
Wallenstein  sein  Unternehmen  gruendet,""*  and  which  "erklaeret  sein 
Verbrechen."s  Realizing  that  Wallenstein  is  "von  der  Zeiten  Gunst 
emporgetragen,"  he  studies  the  sources  carefully,  "denn  ich  musste  die 
Handlung  wie  die  Charaktere  aus  ihrer  Zeit,  ihrem  Lokal,  und  dem  ganzen 
Zusammenhang  der  Begebenheiten  schoepfen."^  Thus  Schiller  has  here 
cut  loose  from  the  pragmatic,  individualist  motivation  of  events.  His 
drama  Wallenstein  is  a  "character-drama,"  and  at  the  same  time  a  "rnilieu- 
drama."     It  is  also  a  "fate-drama,"  but  in  a  new  and  scientific  sense. 

It  is  clear  that  in  Schiller,  as  in  Goethe,  the  demand  of  Boileau  and 
Voltaire,  that  the  "moeurs"  should  be  accurate,  has  received  a  new  illumi- 
nation. This  presentation  of  mass  and  milieu,  in  order  to  show  how  out  of 
these,  characters  and  situations  logically  and  inevitably  grow,  is  Schiller's 
greatest  contribution  to  the  historic  drama.  This  was  a  problem  that 
received  interesting  and  conscious  illustration  in  Grabbe's  work,  and  the 
solution  of  it  became  Hebbel's  chief  efifort.  Lessing's  requirement  that 
only  the  characters  need  be  historically  accurate  is  seen  to  be  inadequate; 
his  belief  that  the  characters  can  be  separated  from  the  corresponding 
events  and  from  the  historic  setting,  in  the  demand  for  historic  truth,  has 
been  superseded  by  a  deeper  comprehension  of  their  necessary  connection. ^ 

In  spite  of  these  interesting  developments,  however,  Schiller  in  the  drama 
was  never  quite  able  to  give  up  his  interpretation  of  events  according  to 
his  formula  of  morality.  The  hero  who  was  unable  to  rise  to  a  moral 
agreement  with  fate  felt  the  full  force  of  punishment;  so  Wallenstein,  who 
is  held  responsible  for  the  smaller  proportion  of  his  guilt,^  and  falls  the 

1  An  G.,  November  28,  1796. 

2  An  K.,  November  28,  1796. 

3  Ibid.,  July  10,  1797.  s  "Prolog"  to  Wallenstein. 

4  Ibid.,  November  28,  1796.  ^  An  K.,  November  28,  1796. 

7  Cf.  Rud.  Lehmann,  Der  deuische  Unterricht. 

8  "Prolog"  to  Wallenstein. 


32  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

victim  of  a  punishing  Nemesis.  A  picture  of  Nemesis  was  to  adorn  the 
title-page  of  Wallenstein,^  and  concerning  him  Schiller  wrote,  "Denn  wie 
jeder  waeget,  wird  ihm  gewogen."^  Similarly,  almost  all  of  Schiller's  trage- 
dies illustrate  the  relation  of  hero  to  moralit\ . 

One  other  point  of  Schiller's  theory  of  historic  drama  needs  mention. 
Gottsched  and  the  contributors  of  the  Bremer  Beitraege  had  suggested  that 
poets  should  choose  especially  national  subjects,  as  had  been  done  in  Greece. 
With  this  Schiller  disagrees.  Poetry  does  not  exist  "  Nationalgefuehle  in 
den  Dichtern  zu  erwecken,"  and  he  exclaims,  "Wehe  dem  griechischen 
Kunstgeschmack  wenn  er  durch  diese  historischen  Beziehungen  in  den 
Werken  seiner  Dichter  erst  haette  gewonnen  werden  muessen."^ 

Before  passing  to  the  theories  of  the  nineteenth  century,  a  few  words 
must  be  said  concerning  the  "  Ritterdramen  "  which  had  been  so  abundantly 
"Ritter-  written   after   the   publication   of  Goetz  von  BerlicJiingen. 

drama  jt  is  of  importance  to  note  that  their  purpose,  fortified  by 

frequent  archaeological  accuracy,  was  often  consciously  historic.  As  was 
remarked  by  Schiller  in  the  case  of  Fust  von  Stromberg,  the  writers  of 
these  plays  thus  sometimes  succeeded  in  evoking  true  historic  atmosphere! 
They  missed,  however,  the  larger  meanings  and  conceptions  of  history,  and 
devoted  themselves  chiefly  to  the  patriotic  presentation  of  private  local 
history.  This  was  criticized  by  Goethe  in  the  words  quoted  above,  to 
the  effect  that  the  conflicts  here  presented  were  purely  private.  A.  W. 
Schlegel,  Tieck,  Grabbe,  found  fault  with  these  dramas  for  the  same  reason. 

The  "Ritterdramen"  could  not  possibly  satisfy  the  age  of  historic 
insight  and  enthusiasm  that  was  inaugurated  by  Schelling  and  the  Romanti- 
The  Roman-  cists.  The  conception  that  concrete  history  is  the  direct 
ticists  expression  of  the  divine  mind,  that  it  is  the  great  work  of  art, 

the  great  "tragedy"  created  by  the  divine  artist,  from  now  on  colored  all 
historic  and  dramatic  theory,  and  produced  an  entirely  new  reverence  for 
historic  phenomena  in  their  individuality  and  in  their  relation  to  the  great 
historic  process. •+  The  "tragedy"  was  felt  to  be  the  highest  form  of  human 
art  because  it  was  supposed  to  mirror  the  divine  historic  process.  Aristotle, 
Lessing,  Schiller,  and  even  Goethe,  had  insisted  that  poetic  truth  was 
more  philosophic  than  historic  truth;  thinkers  now  felt  that  both  coincided. 
It  was  thought  that  no  one  could  be  a  historian  who  was  not  also  a  poet 
and  a  philosopher;  for  the  chief  demand  made  of  him  was  that  he  should 
discover  the   eternal   meaning   of   concrete   history,   namely  its   "idea." 

I  An  G.,  December  i,  1797.  ^  "Thekla." 

3  "Ueber  d.  Path.,"  B.,  VIII,  145. 

4  Cf.  A.  Poetzsch,  Studien  zur  jruehromanlischen  Politik  iind  Geschichisauffassung. 


DEDUCTION   OF   CHIEF  PROBLEMS  "  ^;^ 

Similarly  the  poet's  greatest  mission  was  thought  to  be  the  artistic  inter- 
pretation of  real  history . 

The  problem  of  the  relation  between  the  individual  and  the  universe, 
between  freedom  and  necessity,  is  made  by  Schelling  and  the  Romanticists 
more  than  ever  the  central  problem  of  thought.  As  Poetzsch  has  shown, 
Friedrich  Schlegel  and  the  early  Romanticists  are  of  great  importance  in 
the  developing  of  the  interest  for  the  individual  phenomenon  in  its  single- 
ness as  well  as  in  its  relation  to  the  whole.  They  finally  broke  through  the 
rationalist  conception  of  men  as  isolated  types.  They  are  in  contrast,  also, 
with  Goethe,  to  whom  single  phenomena  are  ever-varying  forms  of  one 
"Urtyp"  and  in  whose  philosophy  and  later  poetry  the  chief  stress  is  laid 
on  "das  Ewig-Eine,"  that  is,  on  the  eternal,  and  not  the  fleeting  element 
to  be  found  in  all  its  individual  and  temporal  embodiments.  Inasmuch  as 
they  first  recognized  fully  and  consciously  how  much  the  single  individual 
is  bound  to  the  past  and  to  the  present,  how  absolutely  he  is  determined 
by  his  race  and  his  age,  and  because  they,  unlike  Goethe,  are  impressed 
by  the  fleeting  and  not  the  eternal  elements  in  the  individual  phenomena, 
they  lay  stress  on  the  fact  that  the  human  type  of  different  ages  varies,  that 
it  is  constantly  modified  by  the  definite  soil  of  the  age  and  race  in  which  it 
is  rooted,  and  out  of  which  it  grows.  The  mass  back  of  the  individual 
is  seen  to  be  not  a  mere  aggregate  of  individuals,  but  an  organism,  with 
soul-consciousness,  which  must  be  carefully  studied.  Closely  connected 
with  these  insights  is  the  deeper  comprehension  of  necessity,  the  definite 
realization  that  the  individual  is  borne  along  by  the  great  stream  of  history, 
that  the  seeming  initiator  of  an  action  is  only  a  link  in  a  great  chain. 

These  views  led  to  a  fondness  for  historic  subjects,  and  A.  W.  Schlegel 
and  Tieck  both  suggested  that  dramatists  should  choose  their  themes  from 
history.  They  demanded  historic  accuracy  in  the  handling  of  these  sub- 
jects. Tieck  was  able  to  appreciate  historic  dramas  whose  aim  was  not 
history,  whose  interest  was  passionate  rather  than  political, ^  and  he  elabo- 
rately defended  the  patriotic  and  unhistorical  tendency  of  Kleist  in  his  Her- 
mannsschlacht.^     Yet  he  regretted  that  Schiller  had  given  the  fortune  of  a 

1  Tieck,  Kritiscke  Schriften,  III,  33. 

2  Ibid.,  II,  41.  "Kleist  hatte  nicht  die  Absicht,  jene  alte  Zeit,  ihre  Charaktere 
und  Verhaeltnisse  auszumalen,  sondern,  was  einem  Dichter  eben  so  natuerlich  und 
erlaubt  ist:  er  sah,  von  der  Gegenwart  bedraengt,  in  diesem  Spiegel  die  Vorzeit,  er 
nahm  diese  nur  als  Bild  seiner  Zeit  und  der  naechsten  Verhaeltnisse;  so  knuepfte  er 
seinen  persoenlichen  Hass  und  seine  lebendige  Liebe  an  alte  Namen,  und  hielt  seinen 
Zeitgenossen  das  Konterfei  ihrer  selbst  und  ihrer  Schicksale  vor.  Diese  Art  Geschichte 
zu  nehmen,  ist  am  wenigsten  am  dramatischen  Dichter  zu  tadeln,  wenn  er  nur  von 
seinem  Gegenstande  auf  eine  grosse  Weise  ergrififen  ....  ist." 


34  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE  HISTORIC   DRAMA 

single  hero,  and  not  the  Thirty  Years^  War,^  and  said  that  a  drama  is  "um 
so  poetischer  und  um  so  groesser,  .  .  .  .  je  naeher  es  sich  der  Wahrheit 
halte,"  and  "die  Dichtkunst  kann  schwerlich  glaenzender  auftreten, 
als  wenn  sie  auf  diese  Weise  eins  mil  der  wahren  Wirklichkeit  wird."^ 
Solger,  also,  on  the  whole,  demanded  accuracy,  and  Jean  Paul  wrote 
"Wozu  ....  geschichtliche  Namen,  wenn  die  Charaktere  umgegossen 
warden  duerfen?"^ 

The  consciousness  of  the  necessity  of  social  background,  together 
with  the  romantic  theory  of  literature  as  an  expression  of  infinity,  helped 
to  relax  the  rules  of  strict  logical  motivation,  and  to  make  the  structure  of  a 
play  more  loosely  organic  than  the  rationalist  drama  had  been.  The 
intensive  study  of  Shakespeare,  particularly  of  his  historic  dramas,  fed 
this  tendency.  Scenes  that  reflect  mood  and  mere  historic  environment 
were  now  freely  accepted.  Wallensleins  Lager  was  universally  hailed  as  a 
masterpiece  of  historic  setting,  but  it  was  no  longer  thought  necessary  to 
separate  from  the  rest  of  a  drama  even  so  full  a  study  of  the  environment. 

The  realization  that  individuals  are  the  product  of  conditions  of  environ- 
ment caused  the  Romanticists  to  prefer  a  guiltless  hero  and  an  unmerited 
catastrophe.  Thus  Tieck  did  not  feel  that  it  is  necessary  to  connect  down- 
fall with  guilt,  and  A.  W.  Schlegel  took  a  similar  position.-* 

Tieck  and  Schlegel  both  advised  the  choosing  of  national  subjects; 
and  both  thought  that  the  subjects  chosen  should  have  more  than  provincial, 
or  sectionally  patriotic,  interest.^  Schlegel,  inspired  by  the  example  of 
Shakespeare's  Histories  as  Goethe  had  been  when  he  wrote  Goetz,  suggested 
especially  the  period  of  the  Hohenstauffen. 

Grillparzer,  roused  by  what  he  called  the  " Albernheiten "  of  "Ludwig 
Tieck  und  seine  Nachbetter,"^  and  by  the  modern  aesthetic  theorists  who, 
^  ^  he  says,  recommend  history  as  the  only  proper  subject  for 
tragedy  because  it  is  the  direct  expression  of  the  "Welt- 
geist,"'  contends  that  "der  Dichter  waehlt  historische  Stoffe  weil  er  darin 
den  Keim  zu  seinen  Entwicklungen  findet."^  Earlier  he  had  said  con- 
cerning Sappho: 

I  Tieck,  Kritische  Schriften,  III,  43.  ^  Ibid.,  Ill,  42. 

3  Jean  Paul,  "Vorschule  der  Aesthetik,"  in  Werke,  2.  Auflage  501. 

4  Tieck,  Kritische  Schriften;  A.  W.  Schlegel,  Vorlesungen  ueber  dramatische 
Kunst;  Paul  Reiff,  "Views  of  Tragedy  among  the  Early  German  Romanticists," 
in  Modern  Language  Notes,  November  and  December,  1904. 

5  A.  W.  Schlegel,  Vorlesungen  ueber  dramatische  Kunst,  Vorlesung  31;  Tieck, 
Kritische  Schriften,  II,  50. 

^  Grillparzers  saemtliche  Werke,  herausgegeben  von  Sauer,   XIX,  108. 

7  Ibid.,  XV,  91.  8  Ibid.,  XIX,  108. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  35 

Damals  herrschten  noch  Lessings,  Schillers,  Goethes,  Ansichten  in  der 
deutschen  Poesie,  und  dass  menschliche  Schicksale  und  Leidenschaften  die 
Aufgabe  des  Dramas  seien,  fiel  niemand  ein  zu  bezweifeln.  Das  Antiquarische, 
Geographische,  Historische  ....  ward  dadurch  von  selbst  zur  Staffage  und 
ordnete  sich  dem  Menschlichen  unter.^ 

Although  he  speaks  of  his  thorough  studies  for  Ottokar  and  of  the  agree- 
ment with  actual  history  in  this  work,  he  says  that  he  mentions  this  simply 
as  "Kuriositaet."^  At  the  same  time  he  later  defends  his  conception 
of  Ottokar's  not  noble  character  as  truer  to  history  than  the  conception  of 
him  that  Bohemian  patriots  had. 3  He  says  also,  "Ein  historisches  Drama 
in  dem  Sinn  statuiren  wollen,  dass  der  Wert  desselben  ....  in  der 
voellig  treuen  Wiedergabe  der  Geschichte  besteht,  ist  .  .  .  .  laecherlich.''^ 

One  may  ask  for  the  reason  why  the  poet  uses  history  as  repertory  for 
his  own  developments,  and  Grillparzer  answers  in  a  way  that  suggests 
the  point  where  he  began  to  feel  the  need  of  reconstruction  of  traditional 
ideas.     He  says  that  the  poet  does  this  "um  seinen  Ereignissen  und  Per- 

sonen  ....  einen  Schwerpunkt  der  Realitaet  zu  geben Nament- 

lich  was  ueber  das  gewoehnlich  Glaubliche  hinausgeht,  muss  einen  solchen 
Anhaltspunkt  haben,  wenn  es  nicht  laecherlich  werden  soll.''^  Whereas 
Schiller  believed  in  "  Kunstwahrheit "  to  such  an  extent  that  an  historic 
fact  was  rejected  if  it  seemed  poetically  impossible,  Grillparzer  accepts 
the  recorded  seemingly  improbable  event,  and  is  glad  to  be  able  to  hold 
up  to  skeptical  mankind  this  security  of  the  truth  of  the  event  offered  in 
the  drama.  "Alexander  der  Grosse,  Napoleon,  als  erdichtete  Personen, 
wuerden  der  Spott  aller  Vernuenftigen  sein."^  "Das  wirklich  Wahre" 
in  his  eyes  is  not  Schiller's  typical  "Kunstwahrheit,"  but  consists  in  the 
apprehension  of  the  motives  and  developments  that  produce  events,  as 
well  as  of  the  events  themselves.' 

Very  interesting  is  his  struggle  with  the  problem  of  the  logical  motiva- 
tion of  events  in  nature  or  history,  and  in  the  drama,  connected  as  this  is 
with  the  problem  of  fate.  Grillparzer  had  a  strong  consciousness  of  the 
arbitrariness  of  man's  passions  and  actions  and  of  the  interplay  of  natural 
forces,  and  therefore  found  it  difficult  to  discover  law  in  the  seeming  uncon- 
nectedness  of  history,  "eine  umfassende  Notwendigkeit  des  Geschehenen."^ 
Man,  in  spite  of  the  causality  and  plan  that  his  mind  reads  into  the  march 

1  Crillparzers  saemtliche  Werke,  herausgegeben  von  Sauer,  XIX,  74. 

2  Ihid.,  109.  s  Ihid.,  XIX,  108. 

3  Ihid.,  117.  6  Ibid.,  108. 

4  Ibid.,  XV,  92.  7  Ihid.,  108. 
8  Zur  Geschichte  int  Allgemeinen. 


36  DEVELOPMENT  OF   THE  HISTORIC   DRAMA 

of  history,'  can  succeed  in  finding  plan  only  in  long  periods,^  and  even 
then  can  never  discover  all  the  connecting  links. ^  This  unexplained 
residue,  or  "X,"'*  he  calls  "Schicksal,"  or  if  one  will,  "Vorsehung."5  It  is 
identical  with  the  "aeussere  Umstaende"  that  are  independent  of  man's 
free  will,*^  and  indeed  with  natural  law  or  necessity ;7  it  is  the  "Personifica- 
tion der  Naturnotwendigkeit,"  a  "Welttropus."^  The  arbitrary  specific 
passion-impulses  are  then  in  reality  determined  ultimately  by  the  "Um- 
staende" or  "Schicksal"  or  "Naturnotwendigkeit."^ 

Unter    dem    notwendigen    wird    hier    alles    dasjenige    verstanden,  was    unab  • 
hangig  von  der  Willensbestimmung  des  Menschen,  in  der  Natur  oder  durch 
andere  seinesgleichen  geschieht,  und  was,  durch  die  unbezweifelte  Einwirkung 
auf  die  untem,  unwillkiirlichen  Triebfedem  seiner  Handlungen,  die  Aeusserun- 
gen  seiner  Taetigkeit  zwar  nicht  noetigend,  aber  doch  anregend  besdmmt. 

Ottokar  and  Napoleon  were  "durch  Umstaende  zur  Tyrannei  getrieben."'° 
This  analysis  of  Grillparzer's  seems  directly  in  harmony  with  Schelling, 
who  wrote  that  historic  writing  must  aim  to  show  the  identity  between 
freedom  and  necessity  "wie  sie  vom  Gesichtspunkt  der  Wirklicheit  aus 
erscheint,  den  sie  auf  keine  Weise  verlassen  soil.  Von  diesem  aus  ist  sie 
aber  nur  als  unbegriffene  und  ganz  objektive  Identitaet  erkennbar,  als 
Schicksal."  Schelling  likewise  identifies  "Schicksal"  and  "Vorsehung." 
Grillparzer  at  first  thinks  that  the  drama  should  show  strict  visible 
causal  connection. 

Das  Wesen  des  Dramas  ist  ...  ,  strenge  Causalitaet.  Im  Lauf  der  wirk- 
lichen  Welt  bescheiden  wir  uns  dass  ....  was  sich  fuer  uns  in  die  stedge 
Kette  von  Ursache  und  Wirkung  nicht  fuegt  ....  einen  uns  unbegreifiichen 
Zusammenhang  habe. "  ....  Die  Aufgabe  der  dramatischen  Poesie  gegenueber 
der  Geschichte  besteht  hauptsaechlich  darin,  das  sie  die  Planmaessigkeit  und 
Ganzheit  welche  die  Geschichte  nur  in  grossen  Partieen  und  Zeitraeumen  blicken 
laesst,  audi  in  dem  Raum  der  kleinen  gewaehlten  Begebenheit  anschaulich 
macht.'^ 

Hence  he  has  a  prejudice  against  the  historic  drama  because  its  form  is 
more  epic  in  consequence  of  the  fact  that  the  events  are  widely  separated.'^ 

1  Werke,  XV,  92. 

2  Ibid.,  92.  8  Ibid.,  100,  loi. 

3  Ibid.,  95.  9  Ibid.,  87. 

4  Ibid.,  XVI,  57.  1°  Ibid.,  XIX,  107. 
s  Ibid.,  XV,  93.  "  Ibid.,  XV,  86. 

6 /Wrf.,  loi,  93  (1837-79).  ^^  Ibid.,  g2. 

7  Ibid.,  100  (1845).  13  Ibid.,  XIX,  109. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  37 

The  use  of  "Schicksal"  in  the  drama  had  meant  to  him  merely  the  symbol 
of  that  causal  connection  whose  missing  links  he  had  not  been  able  to  find 
in  their  entirety.  His  labor  on  Ottokar  and  his  study  of  Shakespeare  led 
him  to  accept  the  lack  of  causal  connection  in  the  drama  as  a  fault,  but  a 
probably  necessary  fault,  "ein  Fehler  ....  dem  man  im  historischen 
Drama,  wo  die  Begebenheiten  sich  draengen,  und  der  Raum  mangelt, 
ueberhaupt  schwer  entgehen  kann."'  As  early  as  in  1821  he  had  said 
"Die  Konsequenz  der  Leidenschaften  ist  das  Hoechste,  was  gewoehnliche 
Dramatiker  zu  schildern,  und  gewoehnliche  Kunstrichter  zu  wuerdigen 
wissen,  aber  erst  die  aus  der  Natur  gegrififenen  Inkonsequenzen  bringen 
Leben  in  das  Bild."^  Since  these  are  "Inkonsequenzen"  of  nature  herself, 
the  drama  can  give  them  as  such,  if  only  it  fills  us  nevertheless  with  a  feeling 
of  faith  that  behind  the  seeming  incongruence  is  the  great  incomprehensible 
causality  of  nature. 3  So  he  says  finally  that  the  showing  of  this  lack  of 
congruence  between  cause  and  effect  is  the  highest  mission  of  the  poet, 
although  it  is  a  technique  to  be  attempted  only  in  the  historic  drama,  where 

der  Weltgeist  den  Begebenheiten  Gewaehr  leistet  iind  fuer  die  Endpunkte  ein- 
steht.-*  ....  Wie  in  der  Natur  sich  hoechst  selten  Ursache  und  Wirkung 
ganz  decken,  so  ist,  in  der  Behandlung  eine  gewisse  Inkongruenz  beider  durch- 
blicken  zu  lassen,  vielleicht  die  hoechste  Aufgabe,  die  sich  ein  Dichter  stellen 
kann.5  ....  Mich  hat  schon  seit  lange  ein  gewisser  Ekel  vor  dem  eng  psy- 
chologischen  Anreihen  und  Anfaedeln  erfasst.  Was  ich  da  niedergeschrieben, 
klingt  wohl  ein  bischen  wie  Unsinn;  ich  bin  mir  aber  nur  noch  nicht  klar 
genug,  und  will  das  Ganze  einmal  in  der  Folge  ausfuehren.^ 

Grillparzer,  probably  stimulated  by  Schelling,  sees  in  the  drama  a  con- 
flict between  "Freiheit"  and  "Notwendigkeit,"  the  "  Notwendigkeit " 
being,  as  shown  above,  the  "Umstaende"  or  "  Schicksal. "^  Without 
disbelieving  in  "Freiheit" — he  asserts  the  contrary^ — he  feels  so  strongly 
"die  Einwirkung  dieser  aeusseren  Triebfedern,"9that  unlike  the  "Neueren" 
who  usually  give  the  victory  to  man's  freedom,  he  like  Goethe  feels  inclined 
to  let  the  natural  passions  and  their  necessity  be  the  victorious  force  in 
the  production  of  man's  actions,  since,  he  thinks,  the  pity  and  fear  that  are 
thus  awakened  purge  us  from  our  "naturnotwendige  Leidenschaften"  ;^° 
if  in  tragedy  wrong  is.  victorious,  the  morality  of  the  world-order  is  not 

I  Werke,  XVI,  167.  6  Ibid. 

a  Ibid.,  XV,  102.  7  Ibid.,  XV,  87. 

3  Ibid.  8  Ibid. 

4  Ibid.,  XVIII,  1 8a  9  Ibid. 

5  Ibid.  1°  Selbstb.,  186. 


38  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA 

thereby  abrogated.  The  fall  of  the  righteous  and  the  victory  of  the  unright- 
eous are  a  matter  of  actuality,  and  this  may  be  reflected  in  the  drama; 
if  the  beholder  has  faith  in  religion  and  the  race-compensation  of  history, 
the  lack  of  visible  reconciliation  will  not  prevent  his  purgation,  "so  wird 
euch  das  zerschmetternde  Schicksal  ....  erheben."' 

Grillparzer  was  a  thorough  student  of  history,  but  like  the  pragmatist 
he  was  interested  chiefly  in  striking  individuals,^  and  saw  in  history  the 
teacher  of  humanit>  ;  for,  inasmuch  as  it  gives  a  picture  of  man  as  impelled 
by  his  passions,  it  warns  us  to  avoid  being  similarly  controlled. 3  It  was 
this  same  lesson  that  was  to  be  learned  from  the  drama.  He  believes 
that  human  nature  remains  the  same  through  all  the  ages,  and  that  the 
seeming  dififerences  lie  merely  in  the  external  circumstances  (cf.  Redlich, 

11  ff.). 

Grillparzer  has  little  sympathy  for  the  mass;  still  he  opposes  strongly 
Metternich's  belief  that  history  can  be  made  in  "Cabinetten  abseits  von 
Voelkern,"4  and  he  concedes  that  "In  der  politischen  Geschichte  ist  das 
Volk  (oder  wenn  ich  die  Besten  weggenommen  habe)  der  Poebel,  nicht 
ohne  Bedeutung."5 

The  traditional  laws  of  motivation  and  unity  of  action  gave  Immermann 
much  trouble.     Speaking  of  his  Friedrich  II  (1828),  he  writes, 

Ich   will   zugeben,    dass     nicht    jede    folgende   Handlung    sich 
als  aeusserlich  greifbares  Product  einer  frueheren  ausspricht, 
femer,  dass  manche  Scenen  und  Nebenfiguren  den  Charakter  zu  genauer  Aus- 
malung  an  sich  zu  tragen  scheinen.^ 

He  says  that  the  unity  is  given  by  Frederick's  opposition  to  the  church. 
In  Alexis  he  tries  to  bring  into  the  foreground  "das  Interesse,"  Peter's 
personal  and  family  catastrophe,  and  minimizes  "die  Interessen,"  the 
background  of  the  intrigues  of  the  nobles;  finally  he  separates  the  plot 
of  the  nobles  from  the  rest  of  the  drama  in  the  form  of  an  introductory 
play.'    As  to  historic  accuracy  he  says, 

Ich  muss  gestehen,  dass  ich  dem  Dichter  gem  die  hoechste  Freiheit  bei  der 
Behandlung  des  historisch  Gegenbenen  bewahren  moechte.^ 

'  Werke,  XV,  88. 

2  Redlich,  Grillparzers  Verhaeltniss  ziir  Geschichte. 

3  Werhe,  XVI,  16. 

4  Politische  Studien. 

5  Werhe,  XVI,  18. 

6  An  Beer,  June  13,  1828;  Immerntanns  Werke,  XVII,  157. 

7  Ibid.,  XV,  172.  8  Ibid.,  172. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  39 

However,  in  speaking  of  his  Andreas  Hojer,  he  writes, 

Ich  Schauta  nach  der  Urgestalt  .der  Ereignisse  bin,  ....  tilgte  die  klein- 
lichen  sentimentalen  Motive  welche  der  frueheren  Arbeit  (Das  Trauerspiel  in 
Tirol)  scbadeten,  und  wagte,  das  Werk  auf  ehrlicbe  historische  Fuesse  zu  stellen. 
Icb  bake  ueberhaupt  viel  von  der  Gescbicbte,  nur  stebt  sie  fuer  mich  kaum  zur 
Haelfte  in  den  Compendien  geschrieben.' 

When  Raumer  had  written  his  history  of  the  Hohenstauffen  (1823-25), 
Imraermann  was  the  first  to  attempt  to  carry  out  Schlegel's  suggestion. 
He  planned  a  cycle  of  Hohenstauffen,  but  only  wrote  a  Frederick  II  (1828). 
He  later  explained  his  renunciation  in  words  written  at  the  time  when 
Raupach's  endless  series  almost  monopolized  the  stage  at  Berlin.  It  is  a 
mistake  to  believe,  he  writes,  that 

historiscb-dramatische  Poesie  sei  dort  schon  vorbanden,  wo  nur  irgend  ein 
Kapitel  der  Gescbicbte  treu  und  unverfaelscbt  in  Dialog  und  Versen  auf  den 

Brettem  verbandelt  werde Ein  bistoriscbes  Trauerspiel  ....  kann  nur 

entsteben,  wenn  der  Dicbter  einen  Stoff  der  Gescbicbte  ergreift,  welcbe  fuer  das 
Volk  Gescbicbte  ist,  wenn  er  von  den  Ereignissen  der  Vergangenbeit  begeistert 
wird  die  in  den  Freuden  und  Scbmerzen  der  Gegenwart  ....  nocb  nacbklingen 
So  konnte  Shakespeare  seine  Buergerkriege  dicbten,  well  die  Blutflecke  kaum 
gebleicbt  waren  von  den  Steinen  an  denen  die  Haeupter  der  Parteien  ibr  Leben 

veratmet  batten Icb  sage  nur  nocb  dass  die  Gescbicbte  welcbe  unseren 

Dicbtem  moegbcherweise  Stoffe  darbieten  kann,  erst  mit  der  Reformation  und 
den  ibr  unmittelbar  vorausgegangenen  Zeiten  beginnen  moechte." 

In  these  last  remarks  he  broaches  another  point  connected  with  the 
historic  drama,  namely,  the  feasibility  of  choosing  subjects  from  modern 
and  even  contemporary  history.  Although  this  had  been  done  since  the  days 
of  Marlowe's  Massacre  of  Paris,  it  happened  rarely  enough  for  Immermann 
to  feel  that  the  writing  of  his  Andreas  Hofer  was  an  entirely  new  departure. 
He  writes, 

Das  Wagniss,  nocb  lebende  oder  juengst  verstorbene  Personen  in  poetiscbe 
zu  verwandeln,  bewegte  micb  so,  dass  icb  damals  oft  in  der  Nacbt  von  Scbreck 
erwacbte  und  dann  die  Vorwuerfe  der  Tiroler  und  der  franzoesiscben  Befebls- 
baber  zu  boeren  vermeinte.  Spaeterbin  ist  diese  Kuebnbeit  oefter  geuebt  wor- 
den,  zuletzt  von  Grabbe  in  den  Hundert  TagenJ 

The  same  belief  that  was  held  by  Schiller,  that  a  "  Staatsaktion "  is 
not  a  proper  subject  for  a  drama,  because  unpoetical  action  in  itself  can 
never  be  interesting,  is  found  in  his  final  reasons  for  discontinuing  the 

1  Ibid.,  XVII,  472. 

2  Memorabilien,  II,  20.  3  "Vorrede  zu  Schriften,"  Werke,  I. 


40  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

HoJienstaufJen.  "Ihre  Kaempfe  und  Noete  gehen  fast  saemtlich  nicht 
aus  den  allgemein  verstaendlichen,  ewig  haltbaren  Motiven  des  Hasses, 
Zorns,  der  Rache,  Eifersucht,  Liebe,  u.s.w.,  sondern  aus  politisch-religioesen 
Combinationen  hervor  ....  an  denen  wir  nur  noch  einen  gelehrten 
Anteil  nehmen  koennen."'  This  sort  of  motivation  in  which  Immermann 
believes  is  clearly  the  pragmatic  motivation  spoken  of  in  connection  with 
the  remarks  on  historic  method.  As  long  as  dramatists  had  a  prejudice 
against  a  different  motivation  as  unpoetical,  they  would  not  be  likely  to 
\\Tite  anything  but  individualistic  drama. 

Immermann's  comprehension  of  historic  method,  however — as  is 
shown  indeed  by  the  very  fact  that  he  comprehended  the  real  motives,  at 
least  to  some  extent,  in  the  case  of  the  Hohenstauffen — was  in  reality  far 
more  advanced.  He  had  a  strong  feeling  for  the  importance  of  the  mass. 
Writing  in  1839-40,  he  speaks  of  the  fact  that  the  war  of  liberation  from 
Napoleon  in  181 3  had  been  begun  and  waged  by  the  people,  without 
initiative  from  above;  that  there  had  been  no  need  of  a  great  leading 
individual  because  all  individuals  had  devoted  themselves  to  the  national 
cause ;^  and  he  commends  a  remark  of  Niebuhr's  that  "das  Volk 
....  regie rte  in  jener  Zeit."-^  He  then  speaks  of  two  methods  of  writing 
history,  first,  the  biographical  method  that  had  characterized  the  ra- 
tionalistic age,  and  secondly,  the  new  method  of  his  own  age  which  he  calls 
the  "Deduction  aus  Zustaenden."  "Denn  alles  was  geschieht,  geschieht 
durch  den  Helden  und  durch  das  Volk.  In  dem  Volke  gaehrt  eine  Unzahl 
vorbereitender  Umstaende,  die  der  Held  zusammenfasst,  sie  mit  einem  Teil 
von  sich  selbst  vermischt,  und  sie  dann  zur  Tat  macht.  Der  Held  ist 
nichts  ohne  das  Volk,  das  Volk  nichts  ohne  den  Helden."^  He  feels  that 
it  is  difl&cult  to  determine  the  exact  relations  between  hero  and  mass,  and 
speaks  of  Niebuhr  as  having  recognized  the  importance  of  the  mass  in 
Attic  and  Roman  history  as  it  had  not  been  recognized  before.  He  feels 
that  his  own  age  tended  to  neglect  the  importance  of  the  individual  hero 
and  laid  too  much  stress  on  the  deduction  of  the  hero  from  the 
' '  Zustaende  "  or  the  "  Volksgeist. ' '  This  method  he  notices  in  Ranke  whose 
best  descriptions  he  found  in  the  case  of  victims  of  circumstances,  such  as 
Charles  V,  Philip  II,  etc.  "Der  Hegelianismus  ist  dieser  historischen 
Manipulation  guenstig;  es  scheint  aber  in  ihr  auch  die  Erinnerung  an  den 
ausserordentlichen  Mann  sich  zu  regen,  dem  keiner  seiner  Feinde  fuer  die 
Person  gewachsen  war,  und  der  dennoch  dem  Volksgeiste  erlag."5 

1  Memorabilien,  II,  19. 

2  Ihid.,  I,  29.  4  Ibid.,  I,  150. 

3  Ibid.,  I,  28.  5  Ibid.,  152. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  4 1 

This  exposition  of  the  historic  theory  of  the  time  is  almost  like  a  com- 
mentary explaining  Gr abbe's  theory  and  practice.    Grabbe  was  the  most 
passionately  enthusiastic  historian  of  all  the  historic  drama- 

Grl'RDD© 

tists.  Having  no  theory  of  "tragedy,"  he  gave  himself 
with  whole  soul  and  splendid  historic  insight  to  the  writing  of  historic 
dramas. 

Grabbe  showed  an  attitude  toward  history  that  is  absolutely  unique 
in  its  harock  and  passionate  devotion.  His  interest  in  history  and  his 
insight  were  remarkable  from  childhood.'  Immermann,  who  knew  him 
near  the  end  of  his  life,  writes  that  Grabbe's  main  interest  was  history, 
that  he  knew  it  thoroughly,  and  that  he  "lebte  und  litt  ....  mit  den 
historischen  Personen  auf  welche  eben  sein  Blick  fallen  mochte."^  Grabbe 
himself  in  his  letters  has  a  mania  for  mentioning  historic  anniversaries, 
and  uses  the  reference  to  them  either  in  amplification  of  the  date  of  his 
letters,  or  in  place  of  it.^  He  comments  frequently  on  historic  events, 
past  and  contemporary. "  He  insists  also  on  his  historic  ability.  Several 
times  he  speaks  of  his  correct  prophecies  in  Napoleon,^  and  says,  "Es  ist 
juristisch  erweislich  das  als  ich  die  lieben  Ordonnanzen  des  zehnten  Karl  las, 
und  ....  die  Folgen  ahnte,  mir  die  Gicht  ausden  Fuessenfuhr."^  Again 
he  writes  with  pride  that  Marius  und  Sulla  shows  "dass  der  Autor  sich 
vielleicht  auf  historischen  Blick  versteht";^  and  in  another  place  he  boasts, 
"Ich  kann  in  geschichtlichen  Sachen  jedem  Stirn  bieten,"^  and  "Beim 
Barbarossa  bitte  ich  nicht  zu  vergessen,  dass  ich  ...  .  zum  Historiker 
bestimmt  war,  und  die  Geschichte  wirklich  genau  kenne."^  He  is  inter- 
ested also  in  historians,  criticizes  some,  praises  others ;'°  and  also  freely 
criticizes  interpretations  of  history  found  in  dramas,  giving,  on  these  occasions, 
many  good  historic  apergus  of  his  own.  He  is  conscious  that  his  is  an  age 
of  historic  insight,  and  says,  "die  neuere  Zeit  ist  in  Philosophie,  Wissenschaft, 
Staatsleben  (besonders  seit  der  franzoesischen  Revolution)  und  an  Erfahr- 
ungen  aller  Art  weiter  als  das  Shakespearische  Zeitalter  gekommen,"" 
and  he  reflects  in  his  judgments  the  fact  that  his  life  fell  in  the  age  of  Hegel, 
Niebuhr,  and  Ranke. 

'  Ziegler,  Grabbes  Leben.  ^  Immcrmanns  Werke,  Memorabilien  II,  38. 

3  Grisebach's  Grabbe,  IV,  220,  243,  2SS,  314,  339,  396,  424,  442,  460,  485,  492; 
Duesseldorfer  Theater,  ibid.,  IV,  56. 

4  Grabbe,  IV,  223,  301,  311.  7  Ibid.,   IV,    205-6. 
s  Ibid.,  IV,  294,  301,  320.  *  Ibid.,   IV,   344. 

6  Ibid.,   IV,    301.  ■  9  Ibid.,   IV,    280. 

J°  Ibid.,  IV,  268,  465,  332,  397,  438,  473,  etc.;   Shakes  pear  omanie,  I,  453. 

"  Gr.,  I,  467. 


42  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

Grabbe  felt  that  the  aim  of  the  historic  drama  was  the  presentation  of 
true  history.  He  conceives  of  his  dramas  as  set  not  upon  the  stage  but  in 
the  confines  of  the  whole  world  in  its  actual  terms  and  dimensions.'  Hav- 
ing, at  the  suggestion  of  Immermann,  given  the  scenes  in  Hannibal  not 
numbers,  but  merely  the  headings  with  the  names  of  the  places  of  actual 
occurrence,  he  commends  this  "trefSiche  Haupteinteilung,"^  and  in  the 
Hermannsschlacht  carries  the  idea  still  farther,  dividing  the  play  not  into 
acts,  but  into  three  nights  and  days,  thus  gradually  removing  every  vestige 
of  stage  suggestion,  and  placing  before  us  the  actual  scene.  For  his  dramas 
he  always  made  thorough  preparatory  studies. 3  He  says  of  Marius  und 
Sulla,  "Der  Verfasser  von  Marius  und  Sulla  hat  ....  mehr  wie  die 
meisten  uebrigen  historischen  Dramatiker  sich  genau  an  die  Geschichte 
zu  halten  gesucht.""*  "Der  Dichter  ist  vorzugeweise  verpflichtet,  den 
wahren  Geist  der  Geschichte  zu  entraetseln."s  He  criticizes  Shakespeare 
for  anachronisms,  "welche  man  endlich  einmal  recht  tuechtig  tadeln 
sollte,  und  zwar  aus  dem  einfachen  Grunde  weil  das  Bessere  besser  ist."*^ 
He  also  criticizes  him  for  misinterpreting  Caesar's  character,^  and  regrets 
that  in  King  John  the  Plantagenets  and  the  nobility  are  not  characterized 
as  "  Halbf ranzosen  und  Normannen,"  and  the  lower  classes  as  Angles 
and  Saxons.*  He  says  that  if  Schiller  had  studied  the  signature  of  Mary  and 
Elizabeth  more  carefully,  he  would  have  pictured  the  "naive  galante 
Maria,"  "die  eherne  Elisabeth,"  more  correctly.?*  He  commends  Babo 
for  having  conceived  Philip  of  Schwaben  correctly  in  his  Otto  von  Wittels- 
bach,  in  spite  of  the  incorrect  conception  given  in  Raumer's  Hohenstauffen.^° 
He  accentuates  the  fact  that  he  himself  has  given  an  accurate  picture  of 
the  Archbishop  of  Mainz,"  of  Cato,'^  and  of  the  history  in  Henry  F/.'^ 

On  the  other  hand  Grabbe  does  demand  some  freedom  in  the  treatment 
of  history, '4  but  this  freedom  must  not  be  the  result  of  seeking  for  effect, '5 
nor  should  the  changes  show  lack  of  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  poet, 
nor  should  he  falsify  history.'^    He  explains  changes  of  dates  as  necessary. 

1  Gr.,  IV,  292,  330,  319. 

2  lUd.,   IV,   407. 

3  IMd.,  IV,  276,  289,  313,  350,  354,  360,  370,  429,  etc. 
^Ihid.,  I,  431. 

s  Ihid.  "  Ibid.,   IV,    272. 

6  Ibid.,  I,  453.     See  also  455.  ^^  Ibid.,  I,  356. 

7  Ibid.,  I,  452.  13  Ibid.,   IV,    287. 

8  Ibid.,  IV,  41.  14  Ibid.,  IV,  2,  80,  69;   I,  431- 

9  Ibid.,   IV,    450.  15  Ihid.,  IV,  80. 
1°  Ibid.,  IV,  III.  16  iiyid^ 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  43 

Der  Verfasser  der  Marius  unci  Sulla  hat  zwar  mehr  als  die  meisten  uebrigen 
historischen  Dramatiker  sich  genau  an  die  Geschichte  zu  halten  gesucht,  und 
dennoch  ganze  Jahre  versetzen  muessen,  [but  adds]  wenn  das  der  Leser  als  einen 
Missklang  bemerkt,  so  ist  es  ein  Fehler.'  Der  Dichter  ist  vorzugsweise  ver- 
pflichtet,  den  wahren  Geist  der  Geschichte  zu  entraetseln.  So  lange  er  diesen 
nicht  verletzt,  kommt  es  bei  ihm  auf  eine  woertlich  historische  Treue  nicht  an.^ 

On  occasion,  when  it  is  a  question  of  appreciating  a  play  like  Calderon's 
Life  Is  a  Dream,  he  is  willing  to  give  up  this  point  of  view  entirely,  and  says, 

Ihr  Historico-Tragico-Kenner  bedenkt:  wozu  Dichtkunst,  lehrt  sie  nur  auf 
Umwegen  Geschichte  ?  .  .  .  .  der  Dichter,  ....  nimmt  aus  der  Welt,  die 
ihm  nur  Material  zu  seiner  Production  ist,  das  was  ihm  zur  Vollendung  seines 
Werkes  noetig  scheint,  setzt  aus  seinem  Geist  hinzu,  was  ihm  geziemend  duenkt, 
blickt  dann  nicht  weiter  um  sich.  Er  bittet:  nur  zu  beurteilen,  ob  seine  Schoep- 
fung  an  sich  schoen  ?  nicht  aber  sie  nach  Tatsachen  und  Schoepfungen  ausser 
ihr  zu  kritisiren.3 

It  is  true,  also,  that  Grabbe's  work  is  not  always  quite  free  from  satirical 
purpose.  Thus  Runkel  is  introduced  into  the  Hermannsschlacht,^  and 
Uechtritz  into  Hannibal  as  Prusias.s  Adelina  and  the  Sultanin  in  Napoleon 
are  portraits  of  his  one-time  bride.  "^  This  latter  sort  of  delineation  and 
invention  is  of  course  perfectly  legitimate,  as  it  does  not  touch  the  essence 
of  the  history  involved.  Thus  we  see  that  with  slight  exception  Grabbe 
insists  far  more  consciously  and  definitely  and  consistently  than  any 
previous  dramatist  on  historic  truth  and  reality. 

Grabbe  demands  both  of  historians  and  historic  dramatists  historic 
insight;'  he  commends  Schiller's  "tiefen  Blick  in  die  Weltgeschichte,"^ 
and  the  unraveling  of  the  spirit  of  history,^  by  which  he  means  not  only  the 
true  conception  of  characters  and  conditions,  but  in  particular,  the  conceiv- 
ing of  history  as  a  movement  of  larger  bearing  produced  by  historic  neces- 
sity. Not  every  period  seems  to  him  worthy  of  presentation  in  historic 
drama.  Thus  he  gives  up  the  Hohenstaujfen  because  the  interests  and 
heroes  seem  too  petty. '°  He  demands  "von  dem  Poeten,  sobald  er  Historie 
dramatisch  darstellt,  eine  concentrische,  die  Idee  der  Geschichte  wieder- 
gebende  Behandlung,""  that  is,  he  seeks  the  world-law  manifested  in  events 

1  Gr.,  I,  431.  4  Ibid.,  IV,  403. 

2  Ibid.  5  Ibid.,   IV,    392. 

3  7&i(i.,  IV,  9-10.  (>Ibid.,   IV,   412. 

7  Ibid.,  IV,  268,  465,  332,  397,  473,  488;    praises  Niebuhr,  I,  453. 

8  Ibid.,  I,  497.  1°  Ibid.,   IV,   313. 

9  Ibid.,  I,  431.  ^^  Ibid.,  I,  457. 


44  DEVELOPMENT   OF    THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

and  in  history,  and  conceives  of  the  sum  of  events  as  a  movement. 
From  this  point  of  view  he  criticizes  Shakespeare's  Histories,  and  calls 
them  "poetisch  verzierte  Chroniken,"'  without  "Mittelpunkt,"  "Catas- 
trophe" or  "poetisches  Endziel."^  He  says  that  Julius  Caesar  lacks 
this  unity.^  His  analysis  of  Coriolanus,"^  of  his  own  Marius  und  Sulla;^ 
his  remarks  on  Schiller's  Maria  Stuart^  show  how  he  conceives  of  the 
history  there  involved  as  a  movement  directed  by  historic  necessity. 

This  conception  is  Grabbe's  most  interesting  contribution  to  the  theory 
of  the  historic  drama.  The  reaUzation  that  historic  necessity  directs 
the  advance  of  big  historic  movements  involves  historic  justice  in  the 
treatment  of  the  individuals  on  both  sides,  and  thereby  makes  impossible 
the  old  demand  of  unity  of  hero;  this  conception  of  historic  necessity 
involves  also  the  neglect  of  the  idea  of  poetic  justice  or  retribution.  The 
historic  movement,  which  is  to  Grabbe  the  unifying  principle  of  the  drama, ^ 
and  which  is  what  Goethe  meant  by  "turning-point,"  is  conceived  as  a 
synthesized  result  of  a  conflict  between  great  antithetical  mass  tendencies.^ 
He  says  that  Shakespeare  did  not  understand  "was  der  Kampf  der  Patricier 
und  Plebeier  eigentlich  sagen  woUte,  wie  dieser  Kampf  aus  der  aeussersten 
Notwendigkeit,  aus  dem  innersten  Leben  sich  entwickelte."^  Although 
he  excuses  this  in  Shakespeare  because  "die  neuere  Zeit  ist  in  Philosophic, 
Wissenschaft,  und  Staatsleben  ....  weiter  als  das  Shakespearische 
Zeitalter  gekommen,"'°  he  demands  it  of  present  writers.  He  criticizes 
Schiller's  Maria  Stuart  as  failing  to  bring  out  the  historic  compulsion  in 
Elizabeth's  actions,  "dem  Dichter  hat's  beliebt  nicht  die  grossen  Not- 
wendigkeits-  und  Weltverhaeltnisse,  welche  Elisabeth  leiteten,  zum  Hebel 
seiner  Tragoedie  zu  machen,"  and  as  confining  the  plot  to  petty  intrigue 
and  jealousy."  Of  his  Marius  und  Sulla  he  says,  that  the  Roman  world 
has  "weder  auf  der  Erde  noch  in  der  Religion  einen  festen  Hauptpunkt 
mehr,  dass  wenn  sie  nicht  auseinander  fallen  soil,  nur  der  Despotismus 
sie  noch  zusammen  halten  kann.  Darum  mussten  Maenner  wie  Marius 
und  Sulla  erscheinen,  und  das  werden  was  sie  geworden  sind."^^  Of 
"Barbarossa"  he  boasts, 

Barbarossa  ist  ein  ernstes  Schicksalsdrama  in  der  besseren  Bedeutung.  '  Die 
Verhaeltnisse  sind  gegeben,  Welf  und  Waiblinger  sind  jeder  zu  gross  um  beide 

1  Gr.  7  Ibid.,    I,    457  f. 

2  Ibid.  8  Ibid.,   IV,   95-96;     I,   453. 

3  Ibid.,  ^^2.  9  Ibid.,  I,  4S3. 

*Ibid.,4S3-  ^°  Ibid.,  4S7- 

5  Ibid.,  409.  "  Ibid.,   IV,   95-96. 

6  Ibid.,  IV,  95-96.  '  "  Ibid.,  I,  409. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  45 

nebenher  zu  bestehen,  der  Kaiser  und  der  Loewe  sind  Freunde,  aber  sie  muessen 
doch,  durch  die  Lage  der  Dinge  gezwungen,  sich  bekaempfen,  ebenso  wie  auch 
der  Papst  Alexander,  der  in  seiner  ganzenhistorischen  Groesse  dasteht,  dem 
Kaiser  nicht  aus  gemeiner  Feindschaft  und  Niedrigkeit  entgegentritt,  sondern 
auch  mit  dem  Blick  auf  Umstaende.^ 

In  speaking  of  Napoleon's  life  and  action,  he  deduces  them  as  the  inevit- 
able product  of  the  Revolution  and  its  life,  calling  him  "das  Faehnlein  an 
deren  Maste"  "kleiner  als  die  Revolution,"  of  which  he  says,  "sie  lebt 
noch."2  This  finding  in  an  historic  movement  an  illustration  of  a  natural 
fate-tragedy  is  a  great  and  new  insight,  and  well  illustrates  the  Hegelian 
conception  of  history. 

In  this  last  quotation  one  finds  not  only  an  expression  of  historic  inevi- 
tability, but  an  important  conception  of  the  power  of  mass  movement. 
The  Revolution  is  felt  as  a  great  movement  and  impulsion,  strong  because 
it  represents  the  collective  will  of  an  infinite  number  of  individuals,  bearing 
along  with  it  irresistibly  even  the  seemingly  striking  hero,  a  tremendous 
fate-power.  Thus  Napoleon,  who  never  knew  "wohin  er  strebte,"  is 
borne  to  success  by  it. 3  Before  this  all-compelling  fate-power,  which  is 
the  product  of  the  complicated  network  of  cause  and  effect  due  to  the  count- 
lessly  varied  will-impulses  of  many,  even  the  unusual  individual  who  plans 
consciously  is  helpless.  Such  a  victim  Grabbe  finds  in  Peter  the  Great. 
Speaking  of  Immermann's  Alexis,  he  writes,  "Dieser  Wurm  von  Vater, 
der  aus  den  Faeden  des  Schicksals  (welches  wir  so  wenig  kennen  als  uns, 
well  wir  auch  dazu  gehoeren)  Seide  spinnen  woUte,  ward  mit  Recht  ueber- 
sehen,  als  die  ehernen  Knoten  selbstherrschend  sich  loesten,  ausbreiteten, 
eine  gewaltige,  doch  suehnende  Hand."  Thus  also,  Sulla,  who  is  trying 
to  reform  Rome  by  individualistic  measures,  is  doubtful  "ob  bei  der  Ver- 
sunkenheit   der   Menge   seine   Anordnungen  lange  bestehen   wuerden."^ 

Although  Grabbe  feels  that  the  mass  is  composed  of  very  average 
individuals,  "dennoch  pflegt  im  Volk  als  Gesamtheit  stets  die  richtige 
Ansicht,  das  wahre  Gefuehl  vorzuherrschen."  He  criticizes  Shakespeare 
for  ha\'ing  represented  the  mass  in  Coriolanus  as  "Poebel."^  The 
treatment  in  Julius  Caesar  he  finds  superficial.*^ 

In  order  adequately  to  present  an  historic  movement,  the  scale 
and  canvas  chosen  must  be  large  and  comprehensive;  must  present 
masses.  He  aims  to  make  his  dramas  not  "buehnengerecht,"  but 
"weltgerecht."'      Grabbe  says  that  the  theater  must  be  made  "weit 

I  Gr..    IV,    273.  "Hhid.,  I,  425.  (>  Ibid. 

''Ibid.,   IV,    289.  s  Ibid.,  I,  453.  v  76/d.,  IV,  330. 

3  Ibid.;    cf.  Napoleon's  words  above. 


46  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

einfacher  und  doch  weit  grossartiger,"'  and  "Meines  sei  die  Welt."^ 
From  the  first  he  was  proud  of  his  "Massenscenen."  Speaking  of  those 
in  Marius  und  Sulla  he  says,  "Selbst  Shakespeare  hat  nie  trefflichere  Volks- 
scenen  gczeichnct."^  Again  he  says,  "Die  Volksscenen  [in  Napoleon] 
werden  koestlich,  besser  als  im  Sulla.'" '^  He  is  especially  proud  of  great 
battles  in  which  whole  nations  are  opposed  to  one  another.^  He  also 
prides  himself  on  his  excellent  individualization  of  the  masses.  He  com- 
mends what  he  has  done  in  this  regard  in  Marius  und  Sulla/*  and  speaks 
of  the  art  he  has  shown  in  the  picturing  of  the  Saxons  and  Suabians.7 
To  guilds  of  people  he  purposely  gives  a  family  resemblance,  saying,  "Ich 
habe  die  preussischen  Jaeger  mit  Willen  conform  gemacht."^  Shakespeare 
he  had  criticized  for  not  characterizing  justly  the  French  whom  he  hated, ^ 
and  for  not  characterizing  the  English  in  King  John  as  Anglo-Saxons  in 
contrast  to  the  Norman  nobility. '°  Uechtritz  he  criticizes  for  not  having 
differentiated  "die  slavischen  Gepiden  und  die  germanischen  Lango- 
barden."" 

Grabbe  has  full  joy  in  the  varied  life  of  the  mass,  but  is  often  also  dis- 
couraged by  a  seamy  side  of  the  petty  mass.  "Die  Menge  ist  ein  Hund, 
je  mehr  Pruegel,  je  folgsamer."'^  He  is  a  liberalist,  but  despises  the  pettiness 
of  so  much  of  the  revolutionary  agitation  as  "ein  notwendiges  Uebel,"'^ 
deplores  the  despotism  of  the  many  that  followed  Napoleon's  fall,''*  or  the 
despotism  of  democracy  made  possible  by  the  constitutional  life,  and  says, 
"Ich  Hebe  die  Despotie  eines  Einzelnen,  nicht  vieler."*s  The  nature  of  the 
prevailing  liberalism  makes  him  almost  desire  despotism  back  again. '^ 
This  power  of  the  petty  mass  he  illustrates  in  Hannibal,  where  Hannibal 
the  strong  hero  falls  before  the  pettiness  of  small  business  men.'^ 

Yet,  with  all  his  realization  of  the  mass,  with  all  his  elemental  instinct 
for  the  universal,  for  the  n^st  democratic  individualism,  with  all  his  con- 
sciousness of  the  power  of  the  multi-headed  mob,  he  has  just  as  elemental 
an  instinct  for  the  great  individual,  for  the  Titan.     "Ich  liebe  Despotie 

I  Gr.,  IV,  319.  3  lUd.,  IV,  246. 

'Ibid.,  IV,  292;    cf.  also  300  f.  '^  Ibid.,   IV,   296. 

s  Immermann,  Mem.,  IV,  xxxiil;    Gr.  IV,  271. 

6  Gr.,   IV,    205-6.  1=  Ibid.,   IV,   228. 

7  Ibid.,  IV,  273.  13  Ibid.,  IV,  315. 
^  Ibid.,  IV,  306.  ^ilbid.,  IV,  361. 
9  Ibid.,  I,  453.  "s  Ibid.,  IV,  473. 
^°  Ibid.,  IV,  0,1.  ^(>  Ibid.,  IV,  361. 
"  Ibid.,  IV,  419  f.  17  Ibid.,  IV,  398. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  47 

eines  Einzelnen";'  "dieser  Liberalismus  koennte  mich  Despotic  zurueck- 
wuenschen  lassen."^  He  likes  Titans  so  well  that  he  associates  several 
with  one  another,  and  in  his  dramas  he  cannot  endure  to  have  everything 
pivot  around  one  hero,  "nichts  ist  mir  fataler  als  wo  alles  sich  urn  einen 
Goetzen  dreht,"  and  so  plans  to  bring  Scipio  into  prominence  by  the  side 
of  Hannibal. 3  Indeed,  it  is  just  the  conflict  of  one  Titan  with  another  that 
he  admires. 4  The  height  of  the  tragic  seems  attained  when  the  great 
Titan  falls  before  the  petty  mass  as  illustrated  in  Hannibal.  ^ 

We  find,  then,  in  Grabbe  an  individualism  that  causes  him  to  appreciate 
the  autonomous  life  of  the  mass  better  than  any  preceding  dramatist,  its 
power  for  good,  but  also  its  cruel  power  in  curtailing  the  very  individualism 
which  is  the  source  of  its  own  free  life,  when  this  individualism  rises  before 
it  in  high  potency  in  a  Titanic  hero.  He  illustrates  the  difficult  problem 
of  the  interrelation  between  hero  and  mass. 

Grabbe  has  no  fear  of  the  ''Staatsaktion"  as  such.  He  does  not  believe 
that  in  order  to  make  an  historic  drama  interesting  it  is  necessary  to  trans- 
form political  into  passionate  motives,  and  indeed  seeks  to  present  just 
the  political  motives  and  "Umstaende,"^  and  the  public  rather  than  private 
interests.  So  he  criticizes  Schenk's  Belisar  as  being  "buergerlich,"' 
Kleist's  Kaetchen  von  Heilbronn  as  giving  "blosse  Bewegungen  des  Her- 
zens,"*  and  Schiller's  Maria  Stuart  as  hinging  on  petty  intrigue  and 
jealousy.  9 

Grabbe  is  increasingly  conscious  of  the  individuality  of  his  work. 
He  is  proud  of  his  conception  of  historic  movement  and  historic  necessity, 
and  of  his  mass  treatment.  The  excellence  of  the  historic  insight  in  Bar- 
barossa  and  Heinrich  der  Sechste,  the  wealth  of  true  individual  characteri- 
zation, are  an  unceasing  delight  to  him.i°  He  works  on  Napoleon  with 
joy  in  having  seized  a  modern  period,  and  prides  himself  on  the  mass 
scenes."  Hannibal,  he  thinks,  is  much  better  than  Napoleon.^ ^  Finally 
of  the  Hermanns schlacht,  into  which  he  puts  with  frantic  consecration 
his  dying  strength  and  effort,  which  he  feels  is  sapping  his  last  blood, '^ 

I  Gr.,   IV,   473- 

'Ihid.,  IV,  361.  ('Ibid.,   IV,   273. 

3  Ibid.,   IV,   356.  7  Ibid.,  IV,  60. 

'^Ibid.  «  Ibid.,   IV,    loi. 

s  Ibid.,  IV,  390,  398.  9  Ibid.,   IV,   95-96. 

1°  Ibid.,  IV,  267  and  in  various  letters  of  this  period. 

"  Ibid.,  IV,  294,  296. 

"  Ibid.,   IV,   376.  13  Ibid.,   IV,   463,   etc. 


48  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA 

he  says,  "die  Hermannsschlacht  ist  gegen  den  Hannibal  ein  Coloss";' 
and  "ein  Coloss  auf  durchaus  neuen  Wegen  schreitend,  ist  das  Stueck."^ 

Thus  it  is  clear  that  Grabbe  consciously  sought  to  write  an  historic  drama 
of  large  purport,  to  give  true  history,  to  give  it  treated  as  a  movement, 
the  product  of  the  conflict  of  large  and  complex  forces,  and  to  give  this 
movement  conceived  in  the  terms  of  a  large  historic  necessity.  He  repre- 
sents a  decided,  important,  and  interesting  step  in  the  development  of  the 
theory  and  practice  of  the  historic  drama,  and  throws  an  entirely  new  light 
on  the  corporate  type. 3 

Georg  Buechner,  who  follows  somewhat  the  inspiration  of  Grabbe, 
wrote : 

Der  dramatische  Dichter  ist  ...  .    nichts   als   ein    Geschichtsschreiber,   steht 
aber  ueber  Letzerem  dadurch  dass  er  uns  die  Geschichte  zum  zweitenmal  erschafft, 
_  und  uns  gleich  unmittelbar,  statt  eine  trockene  Erzaehlung  zu 

geben,  in  das  Leben  einer  Zeit  hineinversetzt,  uns  statt  Charak- 
teristiken  Charaktere  ....  und  statt  Beschreibungen  Gestalten  giebt.  Seine 
hoechste  Aufgabe  ist,  der  Geschichte,  wie  sie  sich  wirklich  begeben,  so  nahe  als 
moeglich  zu  kommen.* 

He  realized  to  the  full  the  shifting  of  weight  from  hero  to  mass. 

Ich  studirte  die  franzoesische  Revolution.  Ich  fuehlte  mich  wie  zerruettet 
unter  dem  graesslichen  Fatalismus  der  Geschichte.  Ich  finde  in  der  Menschen- 
natur  eine  entsetzliche  Gleichheit,  in  den  menschlichen  Verhaeltnissen  eine  unab- 
wendbare  Gewalt,  allem  und  keinem  verliehen.  Der  Einzelne  nur  Schaum  auf 
der  Welle,  die  Groesse  ein  blosser  Zufall,  die  Herrschaft  des  Genies  ein  Puppen- 
spiel,  ein  laecherliches  Ringen  gegen  ein  ehemes  Gesetz,  es  zu  erkennen  das 
Hoechste,  es  zu  beherrschen  unmoeglich.s 

This  conception  permeates  Dantons   Tod. 

Wer  wird  der  Hand  fluchen,  auf  die  der  Fluch  des  Muss  gefallen  ?^  Das 
Schicksal  fuehrt  uns  die  Arme,  aber  nur  gewaltige  Naturen  sind  seine  Organe.' 

I  Gr.,   IV,   485.  =  Ibid.,   IV,   502. 

3  It  may  seem  surprising  that  Grabbe's  theory  has  been  given  in  such  detail,  and 
has  been  taken  so  seriously  when  compared  with  Shakespeare,  Goethe,  Schiller,  Hebbel. 
Grabbe  has  however  undoubtedly  aimed  to  do  a  different  thing  than  they,  and  has 
largely  succeeded.  Apart  from  his  hopeless  faults,  he  has  achieved  something  that  the 
other  much  greater  and  saner  dramatists  never  aimed  to  do.  His  sometimes  over- 
whelming self-confidence  and  self-praise  have  a  real  and  justified  origin  in  this  realiza- 
tion, and  one  can  understand  how  under  the  stress  of  the  originality  of  his  own  concep- 
tion he  forgets  what  he  lacks. 

4  Buechners  Werke,  354.  ^  Dantons  Tod,  50. 

5  Einleitung  to  Dantons  Tod,  Ixv.  '  Ibid.,  66. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  49 

The  close  connection  of  this  conception  of  the  historic  drama  as  an 
expression  of  the  Hegelian  interpretation  of  history  with  the   conception 
.  of  tragedy  as  a  formula  for  metaphysical  experience,  found 

at  this  time  in  almost  all  the  writers  and  critics  of  the 
tragedy,  is  seen  definitely  in  Griepenkerl's  words.  He  wrote  in  1846, 
"Tragisch  ist  diejenige  Konstellation  wo  das  individuelle  Dasein  auf 
der  Spitze  einer  universellen  Tataeusserung  vor  der  Macht  des  Unendlichen, 
Goettlichen,  in  Staub  sinkt."     It  is  a  great  thing  he,  thinks,  to  realize 

dass  das  einzelne  nur  einseitig  berechtigt  sein  kann  well  es  endlich  bedingt  ist, 
dass  es  aber  in  seinem  Falle  mitten  in  seiner  Einzelheit  zu  offenbaren  vermag, 
dass  es  der  Herrlichkeit  des  Allgemeinen  gedient,  dass  es  gelebt  der  Idee  und 

stirbt  fuer  die  Idee '  Diese  dritte,  diese  letzte  und  hoechste  Stufe  des 

Tragischen  als  des  Kampfes  zwischen  einseitig  berechtigten  Maechten,  resultirt 
aus  dem  innersten  Wesen  der  Geschichte.  Die  ganze  Geschichte  vollzieht  ihren 
Fortschritt  unter  der  Fahne  dieser  Idee  des  Tragischen.  Ja,  man  kann  sagen, 
von  des  Buergerlebens  engem  Kreis  bis  hinauf  in  die  hoechste  Sphaere  des  Staats- 
und  Voelkerlebens  ist  es  dieser  Streit  einseitig  Berechtigter,  der  als  Angelpunkt 
des  Prozesses  und  Progresses  der  Geschichte  anerkannt  werden  muss  .... 
und  in  alien  grossen  Ereignissen  der  Weltgeschichte,  wie  in  den  scheinbar  klein- 
sten  Beziehungen  dazu  wird  der  ....  Beobachter  ....  diesen  Kampf  ein- 
seitig berechtigter  Gegensaetze  entdecken  und  darauf,  auf  diese  Idee,  den  Fort- 
schritt der  Geschichte  bauen  muessen.^ 

Griepenkerl's  idea  of  a  corporate  historic  drama  is  shown  in  his  con- 
ception of  what  he  thinks  Schiller  has  done. 

Wo  er  seine  tragische  Schlacht  schlaegt,  da  sind  es  die  Hauptknoten  der 
welthistorischen  Entwicklung  wo  es  sich  nicht  um  die  Wohlfahrt  einzelner, 
sondem  um  die  grossen  Interessen  der  Voelker  handelt,  wo  Masse  gegen  Masse 
wirkt,  und  die  Gewaltigen  der  Erde  zittem.^ 

Hegel  had  been  the  first  to  formulate  the  process  of  history  as  the 
struggle  of  "einseitig  Berechtigter,"  and  had  insisted  that  each  party 
„      ,  although  iustified  was  also  guilty.     The  guilt  consisted  in 

the  attempt  of  each  force  to  affirm  itself  at  the  expense  of 
the  other  equally  justified  force,  an  attempt  that  was  on  each  side  the 
necessary  consequence  of  life  itself;  hence  the  guilt  is  itself  justified. 
The  result  of  the  conflict,  the  result  in  history,  consisted  in  a  forced 
compromise  between  the  two,  so  that  neither  side  was  absolutely 
victorious  or  absolutely  annihilated.  "Die  Einseitigkeit  die  auf  der  Berechti- 

1  Kunstgenius  der  deutschen  Literatur  des  letzten  Jahrhunderts  in  seinen  gescltickt- 
lichen  organischen  Entwicklung,  290. 

2  Ibid.,  298.  3  Ibid.,  I -J  J. 


50  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

gung  des  anderen  nicht  achtet  ist  die  Schuld."  "Am  Schluss  werden  die 
beiden  Einseitigkeiten  aufgehoben."'  His  conception  of  life  as  of  the 
drama  meant  the  double  dualism  of  the  struggle  of  justified  finite  forces 
against  one  another,  and  the  inevitable  struggle  of  the  individual  will, 
in  so  far  as  it  is  finite,  against  the  infinite  or  world-will. 

Vischer  discusses  the  "Tragische  des  sittlichen  Konflikts"  explained 
by  Hegel,  and  finds  it  illustrated  especially  in  revolutionary  conflicts, 
such  as  the  conflict  between  feudalism  and  kingdom  in 
England,  as  the  conflict  between  individualism  and  the 
police-state  in  Germany  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  as  the  French  Revo- 
lution. When  speaking  of  this  in  connection  with  the  drama,  he  thinks 
of  the  Revolution  chiefly  as  a  good  background  for  a  representative 
private  conflict  such  as  is  found  in  Antigone,  and  not  indeed  of  a  con- 
flict between  revolutionary  masses;  nevertheless  the  suggestion  leads 
along  that  line.^ 

Hegel  had  insisted  on  a  guilt  inherent  in  the  justification  of  the  con- 
flicting force;  this  view  Vischer  accepts  for  this  the  highest  form  of  the 
tragic,  "das  Tragische  des  sittlichen  Konflikts,"  but  finds  it  inadequate  to 
explain  catastrophes  that  have  not  even  the  basis  of  this  kind  of  guilt. ^ 
Although  he  found  fault  with  Schiller  for  having  preferred  the  compulsion 
of  "Umstaende,"  and  a  guiltless  hero,-*  he  none  the  less  analyzes  this  form 
of  the  tragic  as  "das  Tragische  als  Gesetz  des  Universums." 

Das  Uebel  kommt  nicht  vom  verletzten  sittlichen  Willen,  sondem  vom 
Zufall  ....  vom  Naturgesetz,  nicht  vom  beleidigten  Sittengesetz.  Das  absolute 
Subject  erscheint  in  Form  einer  blinden  Macht,  welche  ein  Beispiel  aufstellt, 
dass  das  Einzelne  zu  Grunde  gehen  muss  weil  es  Einzelnes  ist.s 

Thus  the  tragic  guilt  of  the  individual  is  now  felt  to  be  contained  in 
the  mere  fact  that  he  is  a  finite  individual  who,  as  such,  is  necessarily 
opposed  to  the  world-spirit.  The  individual's  inevitable  rebellion 
against  the  world-spirit  is  interpreted  to  be  the  same  thing  as  the  Greek 
Hybris;  and  the  Greek  "Neid  der  Goetter,"  which  he  says  destroys 
"das  Schoene,"  "das  Glueck"  even  where  there  has  been  no  Hybris, 
no  guilt,  is  felt  to  have  been  merely  a  symbol  for  the  uncomprehended 
world-spirit. 

This  formulation  of  Vischer's  goes  a  step  forward  in  the  analysis  of 
causality,  since  he  sees  the  fate-compulsion  as  a  network  of  mere  cause 
and  effect,  so  complex  that  the  direct  causes  of  events  cannot  always 

1  Hegel,  Aesthetih,  III,  325  ff. 

2  Vischer,  Aesthetik,  I,  316.  4 /ft j^.^  par.  123. 

3  Ibid.,  par,  132.  5  Ibid.,  par.  300. 


DEDUCTION   OF   CHIEF   PROBLEMS  5 1 

be  traced,  and  since  he  accepts  this  lack  of   congruence  especially  as 

regards  the  connection  between  guilt  and  catastrophe  for  the  drama. 

This  is  the  conception  that  was  suggested  in  Goethe,  Schiller,  Grillparzer, 

and  which  was  naively  illustrated  in  Grabbe,  who  thought  less  of  tragic 

and  dramatic  theory  than  of  the  presentation  of  actual  history,  and 

which  was  developed  most  fully  by  Hebbel. 

Lack  of  congruence  between  guilt   and   catastrophe   is   demanded 

aggressively  by  Schopenhauer '  because  he  beUeves  that 
Schopenhauer  ,,,,,.,  .         ,      .      , 

tragedy  should  aim  to  present  just  the  madequacy  and 

nothingness  of  life. 

Roetscher,  one  of  the  most  influential  of  the  critics  of  this  time,  believes 

■p     ,     ,     .         that  the  aim  of  the  poet  must  be  the  true  presentation  of 

the  historical  world-process,  and  says, 

da  der  Weltgeist  selbst  der  Schoepfer  der  geschichtlichen  Begebenheiten  ist,  und 
die  geschichtlichen  Charaktere  seine  Traeger  sind,  so  wird  auch  in  alien  grossen 
Phgisen   der  Weltgeschichte   die   geschichtliche   Wahrheit   mit   der  poetischen 

zusammenfallen ^  Der  drama tische  Dichter  kann  durch  die  treue  Dar- 

legung  des  geschichtlichen  Geistes,  durch  die  reineWiederspiegelung  der  geschicht- 
lichen Bewegung,  ohne  subjektive  Zutaten,  den  Prozess  des  goettlichen  Geistes 
am  reinsten  vor  uns  auslegen.3 

He  believes  in  giving  typical  rather  than  individual  truth,  and  allows 
changes  from  historic  fact  if  they  are  in  harmony  with  the  higher  historic 
meaning.4  He  thinks  that  the  characters  presented  should,  in  their  essen- 
tial attributes,  be  true  to  history  because  they  are  the  organs  of  the  world- 
spirit,  s 

Similar  views  are  held  by  Melchior  Meyr  in  Roetscher's  Jahrbuecher 

fuer  dramatische  Kunst,  but  he  lays  less  emphasis  on  philo- 
Melcnior  Mevr  '  j  •■  t. 

sophic  significance,  and  more  on  realistic  fidelity, 

Ulrici's  conception  of  the  historic  drama  also  shows  the  Hegelian 
influence.     He  speaks  of  the  "idea"  of  history,  and  says  that  the  "idea" 

^.  .  of  an  epoch  is  the  formative  principle  of  the  drama;   that 

the  imity  is  one  of  "idea,"  not  of  hero  or  action.     He  says 

that  the  epic  element   naturally  preponderates,  that  the   historic  drama 

must  give  an  essentially  unaltered  picture,  but  can  change  unessentials, 

and  that  a  tragic  ending  is  not  necessary.'^ 

1  Die  Welt  ah  Wille  und  Vorstellung,  I,  286  flf. 

2  Roetscher,  Kunst  der  dramatischen  Darstellung,  t,t,. 

3  Ibid.,  49  f.  4  Ihid.,  Ill,  22.  s  Ibid. 
^  Ulrici,  Shakespeares  dramatische  Kunst,  2,1,  1 75  £f. 


52  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE  HISTORIC   DRAMA 

Gervinus  thinks  that  whereas  the  historian  can  give  merely  the  facts, 

it  is  the  poet's  function  to  find  the  motives  behind  the  facts,  to  present 

events  as  a  chain  of  cause  and  effect,  and  to  transform  the 

Gervinus  "Staatsaktion"  into  a  human  story,  preferably  a  tragedy 

according  to  the  Aristotelian  formula. 

Je  freier  und  kuehner  er  hierbei  verfaehrt,  wie  Shakespeare  in  Richard  III, 
desto  poetisch  ansprechender  wird  seine  Behandlung  der  Geschichte  werden, 
desto  mehr  wird  sie  aber  auch  historischen  Wert  verlieren;  je  wahrer  und  der 
Wirklichkeit  naeher  er  bleibt,  wie  in  Richard  II,  desto  mehr  wird  seine  Dichtung 
an  geschichtlichem  Sinn  gewinnen  und  an  poetischem  Sinn  einbuessen.' 

He  demands  exhibition  of  poetic  justice  in  the  drama  as  a  reflection  of  the 
justice  which  he  finds  in  the  natural  order,  and  believes  that  man  is  "Schmied 
seines  eigenen  Schicksals."^  On  the  whole,  he  speaks  of  Shakespeare's 
form  as  a  "neue  Gattung,"  and  acknowledges  that  since  the  events  and 
actions  have  not  a  private  personal  but  a  larger  political  result,  a  severe 
formal  concentration  is  impossible,  and  that  greater  epic  breadth  of  con- 
struction is  entailed. 3 

The  realization  of  the  fact  that  there  are  various  types  of  historic 
dramas  is  shown  in  Gutzkow's  attempt  at  classification  in  the  "Anmerkung" 
to  his  Wullenweber  (1848).  He  feels  strongly  that  writers 
of  historic  drama  have  not  recognized  the  various  points  of 
view  that  are  possible  with  regard  to  historic  subjects.  Hence  he  finds  an 
enormous  body  of  tragedies  "  die  zwischen  dem  entweder  rein  biographi- 
schen  oder  rein  geschichtlichen,  dem  epischen,  curieusen  oder  novellistisch- 
romantischen  Standpunkt  hin  und  her  schwanken."  This  leads  him  to 
divide  historic  dramas  into  such  as  give  "das  historische  Genrebild,"  and 
those  that  are  "rein  historisch-dramatische."^ 

Thinking  of  this  latter  type,  he  demands  "das  historische  Drama  muss 
wirklich  Geschichte  geben,  und  Geschichte  nur  als  solche."  His  discussion 
of  Schiller  shows  that  he  also  demands  the  choice  of  an  important  period 
in  the  "Voelkergeschichte,"  with  "weite  geschichtliche  Fernsichten"; 
he  praises  Schiller  for  having  introduced  us  into  "die  grossen  Hallen  der 
Weltgeschichte,  nicht  in  ihre  dunkeln  Seitengaenge."  The  great  danger 
of  this  type  is  the  "anecdotic,"  which,  he  says,  Schiller  usually  avoided, 
but  which  was  characteristic  of  Goethe,  who,  indeed,  was  thereby  well 
able  to  reproduce  the  type  and  tone  of  an  historic  epoch  as  a  whole,  but  who 
could  never  rise  to  the  higher  historic  drama.s 

1  Gervinus,  Shakespeare,  319  ff. 

2  Ibid.,  155.  4  "Anmerkung"  to  Wullenweber. 

3  Ibid.,  235  f.  s  Ibid.,  218  ff. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  53 

He  understands  the  reason  why  the  historic  dramas  of  his  time  have 
shown  political  "Tendenz,"  but  thinks  that  "Tendenz"  is  the  greatest 
foe  that  the  real  historic  drama  has.'  He  believes  in  the  presentation  of 
true  history,  except  in  so  far  as  the  laws  of  the  drama  demand  changes. 
He  is  glad  that  he  is  able  to  explain  that  Wullenweber,  though  not  guilty 
of  "Ueberhebung,"  has  not  been  able  to  keep  his  hands  absolutely  clean, 
and  so  is  not  guiltless  of  his  Nemesis.^ 

Laube  has  no  original  conception  of  the  historic  drama.  In  his  intro- 
duction to  Struensee,  he  says  briefly,  "Sie  [gewesene  Wirklichkeit]  ist 
untergeordnet  neben  der  Wahrheit  die  im  Kunstwerke 
selbstaendig  herrschen  soil.  Das  Nichtgeschehene  kann 
wahr  sein  durch  die  Kunst  des  Poeten  ....  und  das  Geschehene  kann 
unwahr  werden."  Of  his  changes  from  historic  truth  he  says,  "Es  bedarf 
dies  ....  von  meinem  Standpunkte  aus  keiner  Verteidigung."^  In 
his  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Literatur  he  says  that  the  historic  drama  should 
not  make  the  manners  of  an  age  its  subject,  but  that  it  should  show  the 
"  Fortschritt  des  handelnden  Weltgeistes."-* 

Hebbel  was  always  unwilling  to  have  his  theories  identified  with  those 

of  Hegel  and  others,  but  it  is  nevertheless  easy  to  see  that  they  are  an 

expression  of  the  same  philosophic  and  historic  thought. 

Hebbel  .  .  i      i         ^  •  ^    ,      .        .  . 

His  preoccupation  with  the  subject  of  the  function  of 

history  in  the  drama  began  about  1839  a^fter  he  had  read  Lessing's  words 

on  the  subject.      He  writes,  "das  Verhaeltniss  zwischen  Tragoedie  und 

Geschichte  kann  etwas  inniger  sein."s     In  his  "Vorwort"  to  Judith  he 

says. 

Die    Poesie    hat,  der    Geschichte   gegenueber,  eine   andere    Aufgabe,    als    die 

der  Graeberverzierung  und  Transfiguration Im  uebrigen  werden  mir  die 

historischen  und  traditionellen  Ueberlieferungen,  die  dem  Fachgelehren  in  den 
Sinn  kommen  moegen  ....  so  viel  gelten,  als  sie  dem  Dichter,  der  das  Wesen 
des  Geschichtsprozesses  erfasst  hat  ....  naemhch  nichts. 

In  "Mein  Wort  ueber  das  Drama"  he  writes,  "Die  Geschichte  ist 
fuer  den  Dichter  ein  Vehikel  zur  Verkoerperung  seiner  Anschauungen, 
nicht  aber  ist  umgekehrt  der  Dichter  der  Auferstehungsengel  der 
Geschichte."     Similarly,  he  writes  in  the  "  Vorwort"  to  Maria  Magdalena:^ 

'  "  Anmerkung "  to  Wullenweber,  222.  x^  Ibid.,  224. 

3  Laube,  "Einleitung"  to  Struensee. 

4  Ibid.,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Literatur,  III,  225. 
s  Hebbel,  Tagebuecher,  I,  335. 

6  Hebbels  Drama tiirgie,  152  ff. 


54  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA 

....  die  Gescbichte,  insofern  sie  nicht  bloss  das  allmaelige  Fortruecken  der 
Menschheit  in  der  Loesung  ihrer  Aufgabe  darstcllen,  sondern  auch  den  Anteil, 
den  die  hervorragenden  Individuen  daran  batten,  mit  Haushaelterin-Genauig- 
keit  spezifiziren  will,  ist  wirklich  nicht  viel  mehr,  als  ein  grosser  Kirchhof  mit 
seinem  Immortalitaetsapparat;  ....  so  kann  die  Aufgabe  des  Dramas,  doch 
unmoeglich  darin  bestehen,  ....  einen  zweifelhaften  Galvanisirungsversuch 
anzustellen,  und  der  neuchterne  Lessingsche  Ausspruch  in  der  Dramaturgic 
....  wird  verbleiben." 

Although  he  always  asserts  that  the  concrete  facts  of  history  need 
not  be  accurate,  he  insists  on  the  correctness  of  historical  atmosphere. 
He  says  of  the  difference  between  poetry  and  history, 

Wenn  der  Historiker  jeden  Einzelnen  wie  eine  Bombe  betrachtet,  deren 
Schwingungen  und  Wirkungen  er  zu  berechnen,  um  deren  Entstehung  er  aber 
sich  wenig  zu  kuemmem  hat,  so  ist  es  Sache  des  dramatischen  Dichters  .... 
die  Geschichte  zu  ergaenzen,  zu  zeigen,  wie  der  Charakter,  den  er  sich  zum 
Vorwurf  macht,  geworden  ist,  was  er  ist. 

This  is  the  point  which  is  Hebbel's  chief  contribution  to  the  theory 
of  the  historic  drama,  namely,  the  demand  of  this  profounder  treatment  and 
utilization  of  mceurs,  which  had  been  first  given  by  Schiller  in  his  handling 
of  Wallensteins  Lager.  Much  of  his  theory  throughout  his  life  concerns 
this  point.     "Das  Werden  der  Charaktere,"  not  their  deeds,  interests  him.^ 

Charaktere   die  nicht  im   Volksboden    wurzeln,   sind    Topfgewaechse ^ 

Wie  jede  Crystallisation  von  gewissen  physikalischen  Bedingungen  abhaengt,  so 
jede  Individualisirung  menschlichen  Wesens  von  der  Beschaffenheit  der 
Geschichtsepoche,  in  die  es  faellt.  Diese  Modificationen  der  Menschennatur  in 
ihrer  relativen  Notwendigkeit  zur  Anschauung  zu  bringen,  ist  die  Hauptaufgabe, 
die  die  Poesie  der  Geschichte  gegenueber  hat.^  .... 

Woher  entspringt  das  Lebendige  der  echten  Charaktere  im  Drama  und  in 
der  Kunst  ueberhaupt?  Daher,  dass  der  Dichter  in  jeder  ihrer  Aeusserungen 
ihre  Atmosphaere  wiederzuspiegein  weiss,  die  geistige,  wie  die  leibliche,  den 
Ideenkreis,  wie  Volk  und  Land,  Stand  und  Rang,  dem  sie  angehoeren.4  .... 
Der  dramatische  Individualisirungsprozess  ist  vielleicht  durch  das  Wasser  am 
besten  zu  versinnlichen.  Ueberall  ist  das  Wasser  Wasser  und  der  Mensch  Mensch; 
aber  wie  jenes  von  jeder  Erdschicht  durch  die  es  stroemt  oder  sickert,  einen 
geheimnissvoUen   Beigeschmack  annimmt,  so  der  Mensch  ein   Eigentuemliches 

1  Scholz,  Hebbels  Dramaturgic,  336. 

2  Hebbels  Briefe,  VI,  233. 

3  Tagebuecher,  III,  144. 

4  Ibid.,  268. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  55 

von  Zeit,  Nation,  Geschichte,  und  Geschick.'  ....  Um  die  bedeutendsten 
Lebensprozesse  darzustellen,  muss  man  die  Atmosphaere  der  Zeiten  darstellen.^ 

He  thus  desires  to  picture  the  individual's  growth  out  of  his  historic 
milieu,  and  to  explain  and  justify  his  personality  and  his  conflict  by  this 
social  background. 

In  Mein  Wort  ueber  das  Drama,^  he  writes: 

In  welchen  Verhaeltniss  steht  das  Drama  zur  Geschichte,  und  inwiefern  muss 
es  historisch  sein?  Ich  denke,  so  weit,  als  es  dieses  schon  an  und  fuer  sich 
ist,  und  als  die  Kunst  fuer  die  hoechste  Geschichtsschreibung  gelten  darf, 
indem  sie  die  gross  artigsten  und  bedeutendsten  Lebensprozesse  gar  nicht 
darstellen  kann,  ohne  die  entscheidenden  historischen  Krisen,  welche  sie 
hervorrufen   und   bedingen  ....  mil   einem   Wort,    die   Atmosphaere   der 

Zeiten  zugleich  mit  zur  Anschauung  zu  bringen Dann  ....  wird  man 

aufhoeren,  mit  beschraenktem  Sinn  nach  einer  gewissen  Identitaet  zwischen 
Kunst  und  Geschichte  zu  forschen,  und  gegebene  und  verarbeitete  Situationen 
miteinander  zu  vergleichen,  ....  und  man  hat  erkannt,  dass  das  Drama 
nicht  bloss  in  seiner  Totalitaet,  ....  sondern  dass  es  schon  in  jeden  seiner 
Elemente  symbolisch  betrachtet  werden  muss. 

Thus,  although  Hebbel  opposes  abstract  and  finished  characters  in  the 
drama,  and  although  he  recognizes  the  importance  of  the  milieu  that 
determines  the  characters,  he  believes  in  typical,  rather  than  individual- 
istic, characteristization.  Theoretically  he  aims  at  a  harmonny  between 
these  two  principles.  In  treating  an  historic  personality,  he  demands 
always  that  his  typical  significance  should  be  disengaged,  and  that  the 
merely  temporal  should  be  obliterated.  Hebbel  holds  a  middle  ground 
between  the  rationalists  who  believed  in  eternal,  unchangeable,  isolated 
types,  and  the  naturalists  who  efface  the  typical  significance;  he  believes 
in  the  recurrence  of  types  as  modified  by  successive  milieus.'^ 

If  one  disregards  the  often  rather  invisible  guilt  of  Hybris  postulated 
with  the  very  fact  of  human  individuation, s  which  Hebbel  accepts,  his 
dramas  often  show  catastrophes  not  merited  by  striking  guilt.  He  was 
much  troubled  by  critics  who  missed  the  traditional  reconciliation  in  his 
dramas,  the  visible  victory  of  the  moral  order,^  and  he  worked  out  his 

'  Tagebuecher,  III,  447. 

2  Hebbels  Dramaturgie,  100;  Werke,  XI,  279.  3  Werke,  XI,  56. 

*Ibid.,  I,  145  (654);  209  (960);  314  ff-;  330  f-;  366  (1630);  395  (1768);  II, 
256,(2730);  95(2260);  127(2407);  131  f.;  111,102;  IV,  37  (5328);  129(5647); 
Werhe,  X,  122. 

s  Hebbels  Dramaturgie,  74,  98,  108;    Werhe,  XI,  4. 

6  Hebbels  Dramaturgie,  96,  106. 


56  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

ideas  more  and  more  clearly,  asserting  that  his  reconciliation  of  conflicts 
was  found,  not  in  the  individual,  but  that  the  "Dialektik" — the  play  of 
"Zwiespalt"  and  "  Versoehnung" — was  placed  in  the  "Idee  selbst."^  This 
reconciliation  was  suggested  visibly  in  Hebbel's  dramas,  beginning  with 
Herodes  und  Mariamne;  he  himself  contrasted  them  with  his  earlier 
dramas  in  this  respect.  Like  Grillparzer,  he  at  first  accepts  Lessing's 
views  that  the  drama  should  be  logical  in  every  step.^  He  says  "Zwar 
sollen  die  Charaktere  den  Blitzstrahl  an  sich  ziehen,"  and  demands  that 
the  catastrophe  be  inevitable. 3     History  seemed  at  first  "nur  weil  sie  kein 

System  hat,  keine  rechte  Tragoedie Dies  schliesst  den  Zufall  nicht 

voellig  aus,  nur  aber  werde  er  dann  als  Stoff  behandelt,  dem  der  ordnende 
Geist  des  Ganzen  Form  und  Physiognomic  erteilt."  "Freilich  mag 
auch  ein  Zufall  Providenz  sein,  doch  ist  es  eine  Providenz  die  wir  nicht 
zu  fassen  vermoegen."4  Accordingly  he  blamed  Schiller  for  allowing 
Max  and  Thekla  to  die  without  guilt. 5  Later  Hebbel,  although  he  still 
insisted  on  inevitableness,  conceived  the  principle  of  inevitableness  more 
broadly,  and  demanded  that  both  dramatist  and  historian  see  the  ever-present 
"Dualismus  des  Rechts,"^  in  accordance  with  which  he  realized,  speaking 
particularly  of  the  French  Revolution,  "dass  es  keinen  Moment  giebt,  wo 
irgend  ein  Recht  sich  durchsetzen  koennte,  ohne  irgend  ein  Unrecht  zu 
begehen  ....  dass  es  sich  ....  nicht  ....  um  definitive,  gewisser- 
massen  chemische  Scheidungsprocesse  handelt."'  Since  the  individual 
must  always  fall  before  the  inevitably  successful  self-afifirmation  of  the 
"Idee,"  it  seemed  immaterial  to  him  "ob  der  Held  an  einer  vortrefflichen 
oder  an  einer  verwerflichen  Bestrebung  scheitert."^  Although  in  Hebbel's 
conception,  as  in  Hegel's  and  Vischer's,  there  is  an  insistence  upon  the 
guilt  of  the  guiltless,  the  actual  illustrations  seem  rather  to  be  examples 
of  the  tragic  as  "Gesetz  des  Universums."  Thus  the  imperfect  justice 
symbolized  in  the  old  Greek  fate  and  suggested  in  Schiller  receives  meta- 
physical justification  as  in  Hegel  and  Vischer.  For,  no  matter  how  unjust 
and  incomprehensible  fate,  the  "Idee,"  appears  to  human  eyes,  it  is,  as 
it  was  with  the  Greeks,  the  "Silhouette  Gottes,  des  Unbegreiflichen  und 
Unerfassbaren."!> 

I  Hebbels  Dramaiurgie,  96,  98,  108,  117;   "Vorwort"  to  Maria  Magdalena. 
'  Tagebuecher,  III,  245  f .  4  Hebbels  Dramaturgic,  62. 

3  Ibid,  I,  330.  s  Hebbels  Werke,  XI,  208. 

^Hebbels  Dramaiurgie,  196;  Werke,  XII,  328  ff.  " 

7  Hebbels  Dramaiurgie,  344;    Werke,  XII,  328  f. 

8  Hebbels  Dramaturgic,  98;   Werke,  XI,  4. 

9  Tagebuecher  I,  224. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  57 

Accurate  as  Hebbel  is  in  the  motivation  by  historic  environment,  this 
is,  however,  only  the  means  and  first  step  in  the  accomplishment  of  a  non- 
historical  purpose.  He  says,  to  be  sure,  "Die  Dichtkunst,  die  hoechste, 
ist  die  eigentliche  Geschichtsschreibung  die  das  Resultat  der  historischen 
Prozesse  fasst  und  in  unvergleichlichen  Bildern  festhaelt,  wie  zum  Beispiel 
Sophocles  die  Idee  des  Griechentums,"'  but  he  means  something  very 
far  removed  from  concrete  historic  drama.  He  says,  "Das  Drama  soil 
den  jedesmaligen  Welt-  und  Menschenzu stand  in  seinem  Verhaeltniss  zur 
Idee  darstellen,"  and  demands  that  it  should  help  to  solve  "die  weltgeschicht- 
liche  Aufgabe."^  The  "Individualisirung,"  the  "Werden  der  Individua- 
lisirung,"  the  "Darstellung  des  Wiederstreites  zwischen  Weltwillen  und 
Einzelwillen,"  the  presentation  of  the  "Kampf  des  Individuellen  mit  dem 
Universum,"3  are  his  chief  interest,  and  not  the  historic  matter.  His  not 
specific,  but  typical  and  symbolical,  conception  of  the  historic  drama,  and 
indeed  of  the  whole  "Wesen  des  Geschichtsprozesses,"  which  parallels 
his  contempt  of  "die  materielle  Geschichte,"'»  is  seen  distinctly  in  his  "  Vor- 
wort"  to  Maria  Magdalena,  "das  Drama  schon  an  und  fuer  sich  (ist) 
historisch."5  He  even  says,  "dass  ein  reines  Phantasiegebilde,  selbst  ein 
Liebsgemaelde  ....  historisch  sein  kann."^  From  this  point  of  view 
he  says,  "die  Menschheit  ....  lebt,  nur  fuer  und  durch  ihre  Geschichte, 
und  Shakespeare  ....  ward  nur  ein  grosser  Dramatiker  weil  er  ein  grosser 
Geschichtskundiger  war."^  To  make  a  drama  historic  in  this  sense 
it  is  only  necessary  first  to  choose  a  period  of  social  revolution,  then  to 
present  this  revolution  as  an  historically  accurate  milieu  which  is  felt  to 
be  the  inevitable  result  of  the  previous  ages  and  which  shows  the  process 
of  breaking  an  outworn  form  and  of  finding  a  new  form,  and  finally,  with 
this  milieu  as  a  background,  to  picture  the  conflict  between  "Einzelwillen" 
and  "Weltwillen,"  this  " Lebensprozess  an  sich,"  as  he  calls  it.^  Thus 
when  Hebbel  says,  "Die  Geschichte  ist  fuer  den  Dichter  ein  Vehikel  zur 
Verkoerperung  seiner  Anschauungen,  nicht  aber  ist  umgekehrt  der  Dichter 
der  Auferstehungsengel  der  Geschichte, "^  it  is  clear  that  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  present  study,  which  desires  especially  to  trace  the  evolution 
of  that  type  of  historic  drama  whose  mission  it  is  to  give  a  true,  living,  con- 
crete embodiment  of  a  political  movement  of  corporate  interest,  Hebbel 

I  Tagebuecher,  II,  57. 

'  "Vorwort"  to  Maria  Magdalena. 

3  Hebbels  Dramaturgie,  8g,  .\n  Madame  Stich. 

4  Werhe,  XI,  5.  7  Tagebuecher,  I,  164. 

5  Ibid.,  XI,  58.  8  "Mein  Wort  u.  d.  Drama." 

6  "Mein  Wort  u.  d.  Drama."  9  Ibid. 


58  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

undoubtedly  uses  history  as  a  "Vehikel."'  He  chooses,  it  is  true,  periods 
of  revolution  for  his  backgrounds;  however,  not  the  revolutions  them- 
selves in  their  corporate  bearing  are  made  the  subjects  of  his  dramas, 
but  individualistic  problems,  which,  like  the  characters  in  whom  they  are 
illustrated,  grow  inevitably  out  of  these  backgrounds. 

Hebbel's  conception  of  the  drama,  which  is  a  formula  into  which 
one's  theory  of  history,  of  the  universe,  must  be  fitted,^  illustrates  and 
explains  the  typical,  symbolical  process-drama,  not  the  corporate  movement- 
drama.3  To  the  conception  of  the  symbolical  process-drama  he  is  brought 
by  the  consideration 

dass  der  Ausscheidungsprozess,  der  das  Bedeutende  von  dem  Unbedeutenden 
sondert,  sich  immer  steigem,  dass  er  die  Nomenclatur  dereinst  einmal  bis  auf 
die  Alexander  und  Napoleone  lichten,  das  er  noch  spaeter  nur  noch  die  Voelker- 
Physiognomien,  und  dann  wohl  gar  nur  noch  die  durch  die  Phasen  der  Religion 
und  Philosophic  bedingten  allgemeinsten  Entwicklungsepochen  der  Menschheit 
festhalten  ....  wird.* 

He  believes  that  historic  writing  should  present,  not  individuals  and  mate- 
rial events,  but  "das  allmaelige  Fortruecken  der  Menschheit  in  der  Loesung 
ihrer  Aufgabe."s  He  feels  that  the  law  that  underlies  the  drama  lies 
also  at  the  root  of  the  life  of  the  universe,  "Denn  das  Drama  ist  nur  darum 
die  hoechste  Form  der  Kunst  und  der  Tragoedie  ....  weil  das  Gesetz 
des  Dramas  dem  Weltlauf  selbst  zu  Grunde  liegt,  und  weil  die  Geschichte 
sich  in  alien  grossen  Krisen  immer  zur  Tragoedie  zuspitzt."^  Hence  he 
demands  that  the  drama  should  absorb  this  "hoechsten  Gehalt  der 
Geschichte, "7  and  demands  of  the  dramatist  that  he  apprehend  correctly 
"das  Wesen  des  Geschichtsprozesses. "     So  he  says  definitely, 

Es  ist  ein  Drama  moeglich,  das  den  Strom  der  Geschichte  bis  in  seine  geheim- 
nissvollsten  Quellen,  die  positiven  Religionen,  hinein  verfolgt,  und  das,  weil  es 
in  dialektischer  Form  alle  Konsequenzen  der  diesen  zu  Grunde  liegenden  inner- 
sten  Ideen  an  den  zuerst  bewusst  oder  unbewuusst  davon  ergriffenen  Individuen 
veranschaulicht,  ein  Symbolum  der  gesamten  historischen  und  gesellschaftlichen 
Zustaende,  die  sich  im  Laufe  der  Jahrhunderte  daraus  entwickeln  mussten, 
aufstellt.^ 

'  Cf.  Koch,  Drama  und  Geschichte  bei  Hebbel,  17.     He  holds  the  opposite  view. 

*  Werhe,  XII,  on  Gervinus,  324-34;  Scheunert,  Paniragismus.  See  also  Hebbel's 
remarks  on  his Dithmarschen;  he  considers  the  Dithmarschen  as  the  tragic  "collective 
hero." 

3  See  chaps,  ii  and  iii.  ^  Ibid.,    XII,    328-29. 

4  Werhe,   XI,   55.  v  Ibid.,  XI,  60. 

5  Ibid.,  ^g.  ^Palaestra,   VIII,    105. 


DEDUCTION   OF   CHIEF   PROBLEMS  59 

This  drama  should  present  merely  the  few  characters  "die  die  Jahrhunderte, 
ja  die  Jahrtausende  als  organische  Uebergangspunkte  vermitteln."  The 
Moloch  fragment  was  an  attempt  to  illustrate  this  type. 

Hebbel's  theory  of  giving  milieu  brought  with  it  much  mass-presentation, 
and  in  his  early  days  he  even  attempted  a  corporate  drama  of  the  Wilhelm 
Tell,  Hermanns schlacht,  and  Andreas  Hofer  type,  namely  his  Dithmarschen. 
At  that  time  (1840)  he  wrote, 

Das  ganze  Volk  teilte  sich  in   die  Viktorie,  kein  Einzelner  trat  hervor,  aber 

ein  Drama  aus  lauter  Volksscenen — jch  weiss  nicht  ob  das  existiren  darf 

Doch,  wenn  das  Stueck  auch  nur  cine  recht  sinnliche  Darstellung  alter  Volks- 
zustaende  giebt,  so  hat  es  immer  einen  gewissen,  obgleich  nur  untergeordneten, 
Wert.' 

In  1849  he  discusses  Gaertner's  Andreas  Hofer  and  says, 

Sein   Drama   ist  fast  planlos,  and   deshalb   kaum   zu   entwickeln;    allein   das 

war  das  Ereigniss  das  er  darstellte,  ebenfalls Es  fehlt  an  einem  Helden 

im  gewoehnlichen  Sinn,  der  als  erste  Traeger  der  Handlung  im  Mittelpunkt 
steht  ....  denn  Hofer  giebt  keineswegs  einen  solchen  ab.^ 

Still  later,  in  1S59,  when  discussing  Fischer's  Masaniello,  he  is  certain 
that  a  corporate  drama  is  impossible.     He  writes, 

Das  Volk  ist  der  ewig  Kranke  ....  der  oft  in  dem  ungeschickten  Arzt  den 

er  erwuergt,  das  Fiber,  das  in  seinen  Knochen  schleicht,  zu  toeten  waehnt 

Das  Volk  ist  in  seiner  kuehnsten  Erhebung  nichts,  als  ein  fliegender  Fisch,  der 
von  dem  Element,  dem  er  entfliehen  will,  seine  ganze  Schwungkraft  entlehnt; 
den  fliegenden  Fisch  malen,  heisst  das  Fliegen  parodiren.  Wer  es  mit  dem 
Volk  gut  meint,  sollte  es  nicht  zum  Gegenstand  einer  kuenstlerischen  Darstellung 
machen.3 

Although  he  realizes  that  in  his  age  the  mass  rather  than  the  individual 
"sich  geltend  macht,"^  he  says  in  the  same  remarks  on  Masaniello,  "Ein 
Volk  kann  den  Kampf  um  die  Freiheit  nicht  eher  beginnen,  als  bis  es  in 
einer  hervorragenden  Individualitaet  ein  Centrum  gefunden  hat."  He 
expresses  the  opinion  that  no  mass  representation  has  ever  shown  the  mass 
to  advantage;  such  is  the  case  in  Egmont,  and  in  the  dramas  of  Shakespeare, 
"den  man  doch  nicht  aristokratischer  Vorliebe  bezuethtigen  will."(!)  In 
Schiller's  Wilhelm  Tell  the  mass  does  not  seem  so  despicable,  he  says;  but 
this  fact  he  ascribes  to  Schiller's  use  of  the  "bengalische  Flamme." 

Hebbel  also  makes  some  statements  with  regard  to  the  periods  of  his- 
tory from  which  choice  of  material  should  be  made  or  not  made.     As 

I  Hebbels  Dramaturgic,    85.  3  Ibid,  X,  280. 

'  Wer  he,  XI,  280.  4  Hebbels  Dramaturgic,  44. 


6o  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

a  general  rule  he  demands  that  the  periods  and  persons  chosen  should  still 
be  a  living  possession  in  thought  and  feeling,  that  one  should  not  present 
"das  uns  voellig  Abgestorbene."'  The  "Hohenstaufenbandwuermer" 
he  despises  because  the  imperial  struggles  were  "ausgangslos."^  Shake- 
speare's Histories,  however,  are  well  chosen,  for  "mit  einem  grossartigen 
Blick  in  das  wahrhaft  Lebendige  ....  stellte  er  dar,  was  noch  im  Bewusst- 
sein  seines  Volkes  lebte,  well  es  noch  daran  zu  tragen  und  zu  zehren  hatte, 
den  Krieg  der  roten  Rose  mit  der  weissen,  die  Hoellenausgeburte  des 
Kampfes  und  die  ....  aufdaemmernden  Segnungen  des  endlichen 
Friedens."^  In  spite  of  this  strict  demand  he  nevertheless  was  sometimes 
able  to  appreciate  living  incorporation  of  the  past  even  when  removed  in 
thought  and  feeling,  as  in  the  case  of  Uhland's  Herzog  Ernst  and  Ludwig 
der  BaierA  Modern  subjects,  such  as  Frederick  the  great  and  Napoleon, 
he  considers  permissible,  but  since  he  believes  in  typical  characterization, 
he  thinks  such  a  subject  difficult  to  handle.  The  closeness  of  modern  his- 
toric personalities  to  us  makes  the  exact  determination  of  their  typical 
significance,  and  the  necessary  simplifying  and  idealizing,  especially 
difficult,  s 

Hebbel,  having  the  idea  that  every  epoch  shows  some  stage  in  man's 
development,  and  that  the  drama  should  picture  this  stage,  thus  being 
"zeitgemaess,"*^  goes  still  farther  along  this  line  when  he  says  that  the 
dramatist  who 

dereinst  der  schaudemden  Menschheit  an  einem  erschoepfenden  Beispiel  wird 
veranschaulichen  woUen,  welch  ein  aeusserstes  in  der  Welt  moeglich  ist,  so  lange 
sie  unbedingt  von  der  unumschraenkten  Willkuer  eines  Einzelnen,  jeder  mensch- 
lichen  Schwaeche  unterworfenen  und  nicht  einmal  gegen  Wahn  und  Bloedsinn 
geschuetzten  Individuums  abhaengt,  wird  er  den  Schatten  Struensees  herauf- 
beschwoeren.7 

A  picture  would  be  given  of  self-destroying  absolutism,  and  he  thinks 
that  such  a  drama  would  fight  "fuer  die  liberalen  Ideen."^  On  the  other 
hand  he  does  not  approve  of  using  dramas  as  a  vehicle  of  "Tendenz, "  the 
custom  so  common  since  the  preachings  of  the  "Junge  Deutschland,"^ 
and  criticizes  Bauernfeld,  and  especially  Prutz  for  this  fault. '° 

'  Werhe,   XI,  58. 

2  Ihid.,  60.  3  Ihid. 

*  Ihid.,  X,  372.     Koch,  Drama  und  Geschichte  hei  Hebbel,  42,  makes  this  point. 

5  Werhe,  X,  122;    Tagebuecher,  IV,  129;  Koch,  45. 

(>  Werhe,  XI,  48. 

7  Ibid.,  XI,  291.  9  Ibid.,  40. 

8  Ibid.,  301,  302.  J°  Ibid.,  341-42. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  6 1 

Finally,  Hebbel  is  one  of  the  first  to  distinguish  types  of  the  historic 
drama.  His  theory  considers  every  drama,  every  real  drama,  historic  in 
a  big  typical  sense  as  representative  of  the  stages  of  the  world-process;'' 
he  acknowledges,  however,  a  drama  which  is  "subjectiv-individuell,"  and 
one  which  is  ''partiell-national,"  like  his  Dithmarschen.^ 

Hebbel  marked  the  culmination  of  the  movement  which  tried  to 
incorporate  pure  philosophy  of  history  in  the  drama.  From  now  on, 
dramatists  and  critics  show  a  different  spirit. 

In  a  feeling  of  opposition  against  the   philosophic   treatment  of  the 

historic  "idea"  in  the  drama,  Hettner  writes,  "Der  instinktive  Drang  der 

,^  ^^  heutigen  Poesie  geht  darauf,  ganz  dem  realistischen  Wesen 

Hettner  ,     rV  .  .         ,..    f      ^    ,..,,•  . 

der  Zeit  gemaess,  m  reahstischer  Individualisirung  die  gros- 

sen  objektiven  Maechte  und  Interessen  der  Geschichte  darzustellen."^ 
He  holds  very  strongly  the  view  that  the  historic  drama  should  be  trans- 
formed into  a  character-tragedy.  He  thinks  that  the  historic  material, 
which  may  be  handled  freely,  should  be  arranged  subservient  to  one  chief 
character,  and  that  the  "Chronicle"  technique,  which  he  says  the  mature 
Shakespeare  repudiated,  is  not  to  be  followed.  He  opposes  very  strongly 
the  idea  disseminated  by  Romanticists  that  epic  breadth  is  necessary  in 
this  type  of  drama.  He  commends  the  fact  that  Shakespeare  makes  the 
fall  of  Coriolanus  the  result  not  of  political  necessity,  but  of  the  circum- 
stance that  pride  made  him  a  traitor.  "Was  geht  uns  in  der  Poesie  die 
Geschichte  als  Geschichte  an  ?"4 

Freytag  believes  that  the  historic  drama  seeks  "das  wirklich  Geschehene 
so  zu  verstehen  ....  wie  es  tatsaechlich  in  die  Erscheinung  getreten 

^       .  war.  "5     He  recognizes  types  of  historic  dramas  according 

Freytag"  ... 

as  the  poet  gives  either  an  interesting  character,  or  "das 

Schlagende  des  wirklichen  Geschicks,"  or  " interessante  Zeitfarbe."^ 
Freytag's  lack  of  real  historic  seriousness,  however,  is  seen  in  the  permis- 
sion that  he  gives  the  poet  to  invent,  if  his  invention  is  not  felt  by  his  con- 
temporaries as  in  contradiction  to  historic  truth.  He  warns  against  present- 
ing political  history  and  believes  only  in  pragmatic  motivation  of  events. 
Only  one  chief  historic  action  or  at  most  a  few  actions  should  be  taken 
and  used  as  background. 7  Logical  connection  between  the  character  of  the 
hero  and  his  catastrophe  should  be  visible,  and  the  antique  fate  that  is 

I  Werke,  40.  2  Jl}id_^  40. 

3  Die  romantische  Schule  in  ihrem  Zusammenhange  mil  Goethe  und  Schiller, 
190  ff. 

4  Hettner,   Das  moderne  Drama.  ^  Ibid.,  16. 

5  Freytag,  Technik  des  Dramas,  14.  7  Ihid.,  67. 


62  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

symbolic  of  the  " Naturordnung "  is  not  permissible.^  The  mechanical, 
utilitarian,  and  superficial  nature  of  most  of  the  hints  of  this  Philistine 
critic  is  flagrantly  apparent  when  he  acknowledges  that  an  audience  delights 
in  seeing  numerous  personalities  in  an  historic  drama.  But  he  warns 
against  this  practice  because  of  the  difficulty  of  finding  enough  actors 
for  these  {mrts,  and  because  the  possible  illness  of  the  actors  might 
make  difiicult  the  repetition  of  a  drama  thus  abundantly  stocked.^ 

A  prince  of  reactionaries,  who  defines,  analyzes,  and  elaborates  his 
position,  is  Ludwig.  Ludwig  feels  himself  in  intuitional  and  theoretical 
opposition  to  the  metaphysical  theories  of  tragedy,  and  to 
all  post-Shakespearean  developments  in  Germany.  Back 
to  Shakespeare  is  his  call,  to  Shakespeare  interpreted  according  to  the 
principle  of  Aristotle  and  Lessing  and — Ludwig.  History  in  his  eyes  is  a 
repertory  of  personalities  who  illustrate  not  political  but  psychological 
problems.  Hence  history  may  only  be  given  as  background.^  The 
action  taken  from  history  should  be  transformed  from  a  "Staatsaktion" 
to  a  plot  of  character  and  passion,^  should  not  be  "nackte  Historic  "  of  outer 
events  without  informing  soul  as  he  finds  it  in  Schiller. s  When  a  dramatist 
is  not  intending  to  write  a  real  historic  drama,  he  has  the  right  to  make 
changes,  even  serious  changes,  such  as  letting  a  man  die  who  is  known  to 
have  continued  to  live.^ 

Ludwig  believes  in  finding  the  typical  significance  of  the  individual. ^ 
He  opposes  Schiller  for  having  given,  as  he  thinks,  in  Wallenstein,  the 
"einzelnen  Fall."^  "Krankhaft  individuell"  he  calls  Wallenstein. ^  He 
believes  in  giving  "nicht  was  einmal  ohne  Unwahrscheinlichkeit  geschehen 
konnte,  sondern  wie  es  immer  geschieht,  wie  es  die  Regel  ist.^°  ....  Auch 
bei  der  Tragoedie  ist  es  die  Hauptsache,  den  Typus  im  Stoflfe  zu  sehen." 
....  alle  schlechthin  individuellen  Zuege  muessen  entfernt  werden."'^ 
Time  and  place  should  be  vague  and  not  individualized. '  ^  If  Hebbel  desired 
above  all  things  to  show  the  connection  between  the  individual  and  the 
individualized  milieu,  Ludwig,  in  conscious  opposition  to  this,  says,  "Der 

I  Freytag,  Technik  des  Dramas,  8i. 
'  Ibid.,  206. 

3  Ludwig,  Shakespeare  Studien  (Heydrich's  ed.),  55. 

4  Ihid.,  Werhe  (edited  by  Stern),  V,  191,  313-14. 

s  Ibid.,    320.  7  Ibid.,  67  ff.,  254  ff.,  417,  449  ff. 

6  Ibid.,    345.  8  Ibid.,  261. 

•  9  Ibid.,  304;    "zufaellig  individuell,"  ibid.,  225. 
1°  Ibid.,  68.  >2  Ibid.,  68. 

"  Ibid.,  449.  '3  Ibid.,  473,  etc. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  63 

Dichter  hat  einen  einzigen  Typus  herauszunehmen  (aus  der  Geschichte), 
alle  Seitenwurzeln  abzuschneiden,  ihm  vollstaendig  von  vorn,  von  hinten, 
und  nach  alien  Seiten  abzuschliessen  und  zu  isoliren,  und  dann  den  voll- 
staendigen  Verlauf  des  Typus  vor  unser  koerperliches  und  geistiges  Auge 
zu  bringen."" 

The  chief  interest  of  the  poet  in  Ludwig's  eyes  is  the  character,  the 
passion,  and  the  development  of  the  character. ^  Causal  connection  must 
be  visible,  although  not  pedantically  so. 3  Hence,  since  the  conflict  of  the 
tragic  character  is  the  chief  interest,  all  epic  breadth  and  detail  must  be 
eliminated.  The  passion  and  character  of  the  hero,  not  the  "Umstaende," 
must  be  the  cause  of  the  catastrophe. ^  "Der  Held  darf  nicht  unschuldig 
leiden."5  Early  in  the  drama  the  hero,  in  consequence  of  his  passion  and 
character,  should  with  free  will  do  some  deed,  some  deed  of  guilt,  the  inevit- 
able consequence  of  which  entails  the  catastrophe.*^  Hence  Ludwig  opposes 
Schiller's  insistence  on  the  importance  of  the  "Umstaende,"'  that  is,  his 
determination  of  the  catastrophe  by  the  particular  historic  constellation. ^ 
He  criticizes  strongly  Schiller's  "Bemaentelung  der  Schuld."  "Schiller 
sagt,  mein  Held  kann  kaum  anders."9     He  says  that  in  Schiller 

leidet  der  Held  nicht  die  Folge  seiner  eigenen  Handlungen  die  sich  raechend 
gegen  ihn  wenden,  sondem  er  leidet  ohne  Schuld;  das  Schicksal  ist  Zufall;  die 
Fuegung,  das  Goettliche,  ist  eine  dumpf  grausame  Naturkraft,  die  eine  Schaden- 
freude hat,  das  Schoene  in  den  Staub  zu  treten,  das  Erhabene  zu  emiedrigen.'° 

He  opposes  also  Hegel,  Hebbel,  and  those  dramatists  who  show  the 
hero  "als  Opfer  der  materiell  maechtigeren  Gegenpartei,"  who  shift  his 
guUt  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  age,  and  who  try  to  show  the  right  of  the 
wrong,  and  the  wrong  of  the  right.' ^  Concerning  Hebbel  he  says  emphati- 
cally, "Das  Schicksal  ist  bei  Hebbel  mehr  ein  Ergebniss  der  Zeit,  in  der 
seine  Menschen  leben,  als  das  ihres  eigenen  Tuns.  Sie  leiden  nicht  was 
ihre  eigene  Natur,  sondern  was  die  Denkart  der  Zeit,  ihnen  auferlegt,  die 
in  ihnen  handelt.'''^    Thus  it  is  clear  that  Ludwig  has  no  conception  either 

1  Ludwig,  Werke  (edited  by  Stern),  VI,  411. 

2  Ibid.,  63,  449. 

3  Ihid.,  106. 

4  Ihid.,  104,  105,  254  ff.,  320,  446,  etc. 

5  Heydrich,  12;   see  also  Ludwig,  op.  cit.,  V,  260  f.,  424,  etc. 

6  Ludwig  op.  cit.,  V,  416-17.  1°  Ludwig,  op.  cit.,  V,  321. 

7  Ibid.,  254.  "  Ibid.,  54. 

8  Ihid.,  257.  "  Ihid.,  55. 

9  Heydrich,  54,  55.  13  Ihid.,  358  f. 


64  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

of  a  corporate  historic  drama,  or  of  the  modern  scientific  comprehension 
of  milieu  determination  of  character,  conflict,  and  catastrophe. 

In  interesting  contrast  to  these  latter  views  is  the  historic  drama  as 
found  in  Ibsen's  Emperor  and  Galilean.     The  thoroughly  Hegelian  con- 
ception of  the  march  of  the  "Weltgeist,"  of  the  "List  der 
Idee,"  found  and  expressed  in  the  drama,  is  seen  to  have 
been  a  conscious  attitude  when  one  compares  with  the  drama  the  fol- 
lowing words  written  to  Brandes: 

Waehrend  der  Beschaeftigung  mit  Julian  bin  ich  in  gewisser  Weise  Fatalist 
geworden;  aber  dieses  Stueck  wird  doch  eine  Art  Fahne.  Haben  Sie  uebrigens 
keine  Angst  vor  irgend  welchem  Tendenzwesen ;  ich  sehe  auf  die  Charaktere, 
auf  die  sich  kreuzenden  Plaene,  auf  die  Geschichte;  und  gebe  mich  nicht  mit 
der  "Moral"  des  ganzen  ab — vorausgesetzt  dass  sie  unter  der  Moral  der 
Geschichte  nicht  ihre  Philosophic  verstehen:  denn  dass  eine  solche  als  das  end- 
gueltige  Urteil  ueber  Kampt  und  Sieg  zum  Vorschein  kommen  wird,  versteht 
sich  von  selbst/ 

Coming  to  the  criticisms  of  the  present,  one  still  finds  differences  of 
opinion,  and  it  is  only  necessary  to  make  a  few  representative  quotations. 
Rudolph  Lothar  holds  the  traditional  view  that  the  his- 
toric drama    should   be   character-drama,  but  demands 
truth  of  character  and  event,  and  growth  of  both  out  of  milieu.^ 
Gustav  Welthly  says, 

Der  modeme  Dichter  sucht  nicht  niehr  seine  persoenHche  Weltanschauung, 

sein  sittliches  Empfinden,  in  laengst  entschwundene  Zeiten  hineinzutragen, 
sondem  er  sucht,  mit  dem  Microscop  der  Quellenforschung 
bewaffnet,  vergangene  Milieus  zu  rekonstruiren,  um  dann  aus 

denselben  die  Menschen  nicht  nur  im  historisch  echten  Mantel,  sondem  von 

historisch  echtem  Blut  belebt  erstehen  zu  sehen.^ 

Borinski  says  that  it  is  the  poet's  "Bestreben  die  Raetsel  menschlicher 
Geschichte  und  Charaktere  aus  den  tatsaechlichen  Ereignissen  der  Welt- 
geschicht  zu  erklaeren  und  verstehen"  ;  but  also,  "Die 
Geschichte  dient  dem  Dichter  nur  als  das  erhoehte,  alien 
sichtbare  Geruest,  auf  dem  an  weltbekannten  Ereignissen  die  ewigen 
Fragen  des  Geistes  und  Herzens,  durchaus  keine  politischen  oder  dergleichen 
Abhandlungen  zum  Austrag  kommen."-* 

1  Ibsen,  Brieje,  September  24,  1871. 

2  Rudolph  Lothar,  Das  Drama  der  Gegemvart,  310  f. 

3  Gustav  Welthly,  Dramen  der  Gegenwart,  127. 

4  Karl  Borinski,  Das  Theater. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  65 

Hans  von  Gumppenberg,  in  his  Einleitung  to  Koenig  Konrad  I,  says 
Hans  von  that  he  aims  to  give  a  "  dramatische  Verlebendigung  der 

Gumppenberg-  deutschen  Vergangenheit,"  "einen  ganzen  Zeitabschnitt, 
nicht  bloss  enge  Famihenschicksale." 

Von  der  Pfordten  is  the  only  one  who  tries  to  give  an  extended  account 
of  the  nature  of  the  historic  drama.  He  defines  it  as  being  the  result 
Von  der  of  a  true  historic  as  well  as  poetic  interest;    he  insists  on 

Pfordten  historic  insight,  and  demands  that  an  historic  drama  give 

a  true  picture  of  the  past  reality.  He  recognizes  the  necessity  of  an  epic 
technique,  and  upholds  a  broad  conception  of  unity.  His  chief  interests 
seem  to  be  the  giving  of  national  history  for  patriotic  edification,  and  the 
vivifying  of  history  by  presenting  the  soul-life  of  the  personalities  involved. 
He  demands  individualistic,  not  typical,  characterization.  On  the  whole, 
his  idea  of  historic  drama  is  pragmatic  rather  than  corporate.  He  has  no 
conception  of  historic  movement  and  necessity." 

The  conception  of  the  corporate  historic  drama,  whose  gradual  develop- 
ment has  been  followed,  receives  interesting,  although  brief  and  partial, 
Lublinski,  definition  and  analysis  in  Lublinski,  Literatur  und  Gesell- 
R.  M.  Meyer  schaft  im  neunzehnten  Jahrhundert,  and  in  Richard  M. 
Meyer's  Die  deutsche  Literatur  des  neunzehnten  Jahrhunderts.  Lublinski, 
when  interpreting  the  work  of  Schiller,  especially  Wallenstein,  speaks 
of  a  "  Causalitaetsdrama, "  which  he  says  was  Schiller's  undefined  and 
subconscious  aim;  and  Meyer,  when  interpreting  Grabbe  and  Haupt- 
mann,  calls  this  same  type  of  drama  the  ''realistisches  Historiendrama 
grossen  Stils,"  and  "  historisches  Volksdrama  grossen  Stils."  Lublinski 
believes  that  the  hero,  whose  character  is  the  inevitably  determined  response 
to  the  need  of  the  age,  should  fall  as  the  victim  of  the  "Zeitverhaeltnisse."^ 
R.  M.  Meyer  is  especially  impressed  by  the  corporate  interest  of  this 
type,  and  says  that  the  corporate  life  of  the  mass  in  its  breadth  and  varied 
life,  after  having  served  as  background  for  the  historic  fact  in  Wallen- 
stein and  Wilhelm  Tell,  has  become  in  Grabbe  the  chief  object.  The 
wars  of  Napoleon  and  Hannibal,  he  thinks,  are  merely  the  means  by 
which  the  continued  and  solely  important  life  of  the  market-place  of 
Carthage  and  the  street  of  Berlin  is  made  possible.  He  insists  that 
only  a  "  Collectivheld,"  not  a  single  hero,  can  serve  as  "Traeger  der 
Handlung."  Nevertheless  Grabbe  and  Hauptmann,  he  believes,  have  not 
given  sufficient  importance  to  the  striking  individual  or  leader,  whom 

1  Otto  von  der  Pfordten,  Werden  und  Wesen  des  hisiorischen  Dramas;  see  critique 
of  the  book  by  L.  M.  Kueffner,  Modern  Language  Notes,  January,  1905. 

2  Lublinski,  Literatur  und  Gesellschajt  im  neunzehnten  Jahrhundert,  13  ff. 


66  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA 

he  thinks  the  mass  needs  to  have  before  it  can  act.  "Das  grosse  Volks- 
drama  der  Zukunft  braucht  beides:  das  Volk  als  Traeger  der  Handlung, 
den  Einzelnen  als  Traeger  des  Gedankens."  This  condition,  he  says, 
would  be  fulfilled  by  a  "realistisch  gehaltenen  Tell."'  He  does  not  discuss 
the  problems  of  historic  march  and  necessity. 

LATER   ENGLISH   CRITICISM 

Before  summarizing  the  results  of  the  previous  discussions  a  brief 
reference  must  be  made  to  English  criticisms.     In  English  literature  the 

character  and  passion-type  transformations  of  the  epic 
Coleriosre  .       .  i.  ^  l  ^  i 

historic  drama  have  held  sway  to  the  exclusion  of  the  cor- 
porate type,  and  the  theories  have  not  gone  much  beyond  this  conception. 
Even  a  critic  of  Coleridge's  reputation  knows  of  no  better  definition  of  the 
historic  drama  than  the  following:  "An  historic  drama  ....  is  ...  . 
a  collection  of  events  borrowed  from  history  but  connected  together  in 
respect  of  cause  and  time,  poetically  and  by  dramatic  fiction."  He  thinks 
that  the  object  of  the  historic  drama  is  "to  familiarize  people  to  the  great 
names  of  their  country,"  and  to  teach  "love  of  just  liberty,  respect  for 
institutions."^ 

Miss  Woodbridge,  who  has  adapted  the  Lessing-Freytag  criticism,  says. 

National  issues  ....  cannot  be  handled  ....  except  as  they  touch  upon 
individual  human  lives.  They  may,  indeed,  have  a  certain  large  unity,  they 
Elizabeth  are  as  truly  controlled  by  laws,  and  as  open   to  philosophic 

Woodbridg'e  treatment  as  is  the  life  of  a  single  man,  but  the  drama  cannot 
handle  them.^  ....  The  drama  should  show  inevitable  law  more  than  life.'' 

A  broader  conception  of  historic  drama  is  found  in  Vaughn  in  connec- 
tion with  his  criticism  of  Goethe  and  Schiller.     He  writes. 

In  what  does  the  originality  of  the  historic  drama  consist?  In  what  sense 
can  it  be  said  to  offer  a  type  of  play  distinct  in  kind  from  either  classical  or  Eliza- 
bethan  tragedy  ?  It  can,  I  think,  claim  to  do  so  if  it  brings  the 
corporate,  as  distinct  from  the  individualist  life  of  man  upon  the 
stage;  if  in  the  personages  of  the  drama  it  embodies,  more  or  less  completely, 
some  aspect  of  the  national,  political,  or  social  conflicts  of  humanity. 

He  conceives  of  this  corporate  interest  as  symbolically  embodied  in  a 
striking  individual  who  is  presented  as  a  type.s 

'  R.  M.  Meyer,  Die  deutsche  Literatur  des  neunzehnten  Jahrhunderts,  8io;    cf. 
1 60  £f.,  808  £f. 

2  Coleridge,  Lectures  and  Notes  on  Shakespeare  and  Other  English  Poets,  253. 

3  Woodbridge,  The  Drama,  Its  Law  and  Technique,  1 7. 

4  Ibid.,  44. 

5  Vaughn,  Types  0}  Tragic  Drama,  199  ff.,  211. 


DEDUCTION  OF  CHIEF  PROBLEMS  67 

SUMMARY 

The  chief  points  of  dramatic  theory  discussed  in  the  foregoing  are: 

1.  The  aim  to  reproduce  accurately  characters,  events,  and  social 
background. 

2.  The  desire  to  comprehend  an  event  in  its  political  import  apart  from 
merely  human  motivation  and  interest. 

3.  The  desire  to  select  those  parts  of  history  that  represent  great  turning- 
points,  revolutions,  or  movements  in  the  advance  of  history. 

4.  The  efifort  to  present  this  movement  in  its  larger  corporate  interest 
represented  by  masses  rather  than  by  single  individuals,  giving  a  large 
"section"  and  a  complex  rather  than  a  single  plot. 

5.  The  realization  of  the  counter-reactions  between  individual  and  mass 
or  milieu. 

6.  The  willingness  to  accept  events  as  they  actually  happened  by  an 
historic  necessity  of  subtle  sweep,  and  not  as  fitted  into  a  logical  retribution- 
scheme. 

7.  The  endeavor  to  reflect  in  the  construction  or  "inner  form"  of  the 
historic  drama  the  philosophically  comprehended  process  of  inevitable 
historic  advance. 

It  is  clear  that  in  the  subjects  that  have  thus  come  successively  into 
the  plane  of  discussion  there  is  a  visible  advance  from  the  simple  and 
elementary  points  discussed  in  an  age  of  naive  creation — an  age  that  had 
little  grasp  of  a  philosophy  of  history,  and  that  had  not  yet  dreamed  of  a 
metaphysical  interpretation  of  the  dramatic  form — to  the  deepest  and 
most  complex  problems  suggested  by  philosophical  and  historical  specula- 
tion, as  well  as  by  deductions  from  the  experiences  of  an  ever-growing 
democracy  and  empiricism. 

It  can  be  said,  in  summary,  that  there  has  been  a  growth  in  honest 
historic  interest,  a  growth  in  the  ineradicable  desire  to  present  the  true  his- 
tory of  single  individuals  that  have  actually  lived,  of  their  characters,  and 
of  their  actions  apart  from  the  romance  of  love-passion,  and  more  particu- 
larly, the  desire  to  present  truthfully  an  historic  event  of  political  import 
in  its  broad  effects,  and  unfalsified  by  national  or  partisan  feeling.  The 
unhistorical  nature  of  the  types  of  the  drama  in  which  history  is  used 
merely  as  the  means  of  furnishing  dramatists  with  trappings  or  as  a  reper- 
toire of  characters,  fatalities,  and  passions,  from  which  they  may  choose  at 
will,  is  recognized.  On  the  other  hand  there  has  been  a  distinct  develop- 
ment of  an  interest  for  types  whose  purpose  is  entirely  or  almost  entirely 
historic.  While  the  predilection  for  mere  individualistic  character-drama 
has  remained,  the  conception  of  a  complex,  corporate,  political  drama, 


68  DEVELOPMENT  OF   THE  HISTORIC   DRAMA 

corresponding  to  the  modern  form  of  "historic  science"  discussed  above, 
has  gradually  been  evolved.  This  type,  which  is  necessarily  more  epic 
in  its  structure,  has  struggled  for  development  since  its  birth  in  the  days 
of  the  English  Chronicle  Histories.  The  present  thesis  aims  to  prove  that 
it  is  a  legitimate  type,  and  that  it  need  not  necessarily  have  been  transformed 
into  the  character-tragedy,  or  the  romantic  comedy,  or  the  comedy  of 
manners,  or  the  romantic  tragedy  of  passion  as  was  the  case  in  England. 
Although  most  writers  on  English  literature  affirm  that  this  was  the  only 
possibility,  the  effort  will  be  made  to  show  that  it  did  actually  develop 
otherwise  in  Germany,  where  was  found  the  same  love  of  actual  historic 
adventure  that  had  been  found  in  England;  where  this  historical  sense, 
stimulated  by  the  repertoire  of  the  English  comedians,  was  kept  alive 
through  all  the  crudity  of  the  "Haupt-  und  Staatsaktionen" ;  and  where 
Goethe's  Goetz  von  Berlichingen,  definitely  stimulated  by  Shakespeare's 
Histories,  but  containing  in  itself  the  germ  of  a  new  conception  of  unity, 
became  the  first  drama  in  a  whole  new  development.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  conceptions  of  the  philosophy  of  history,  applied  to  the  drama,  produced 
a  form  of  drama  that  can  best  be  called  the  symbolical,  typical  process- 
drama. 


PART  II 
THE    CHIEF  TYPES   OF  THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

I 

The  confusion  concerning  the  conception  and  dramaturgy  of  the  his- 
toric play,  and  the  uncertainty  as  to  the  function  of  history  in  the  drama, 
have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  ever  since  the  birth  of  the  historic  drama  in 
the  days  of  Shakespeare,  two  conflicting  tendencies  have  been  at  work  to 
produce  a  mixed  type  of  tragedy,  to  which  almost  all  serious  dramas  belong. 

On  the  one  hand,  the  authority  and  example  of  antique,  especially 
Senecan,  "tragedy"  fed  man's  interest  for  the  individual  psychological 
conflicts  of  a  few  chief  characters.  The  conflicts  usually  illustrated  the 
reversals  of  fortune  of  known  personalities  of  high  rank.  The  interest, 
however,  centered  not  in  the  historic  experiences  of  definite  individuals, 
but  in  the  sufferings  and  fortitude  of  these  personalities  conceived  as  uni- 
versally human  types.  The  historic  names  of  the  heroes  were  mere  survivals 
and  accident,  and  they  entailed  no  historic  definiteness  of  any  kind.  Sim- 
plicity of  structure  and  strict  observance  of  the  unities  were  demanded.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  another  type  of  drama,  the  "historic,"  had  been 
developed  as  the  result  of  an  interest  for  broader  historic  movements  such 
as  conspiracies,  riots,  rebellions,  civil  and  national  wars,  and  for  the 
strange  and  marvelous  fates  of  definite  individuals  who  had  taken  part  in 
these  struggles,  and  who  likewise  illustrated  so  largely  the  "falls  of 
princes."  In  those  days  of  dramatic  enthusiasm,  the  accoimts  in  the 
numerous  chronicles  of  what  was  believed  to  be  true  history  were  freely 
translated  into  the  dramatic  form  that  had  characterized  the  "Mys- 
teries." There  was  no  thought  of  restricting  the  play  to  the  presenta- 
tion of  one  crisis  or  of  a  single  action,  no  thought  of  shomng  logical 
connection  between  the  events. 

For  a  number  of  years  the  two  types  of  drama  lived  amicably  side  by 
side.  The  First  Folio  classified  Shakespeare's  serious  plays  as  "tragedies" 
or  as  "histories."  It  is  true  that  the  thought  in  making  this  classification 
was  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the  plays  called  "histories"  treated  of 
English  history,  and  not  to  the  fact  that  they  treated  of  history  as  such,  or 

'  Cf.    Fischer,  Die   Kunstentwicklung   der   englischen    Tragoedie;    Cunliffe,   The 
Influence  of  Seneca  on  Elizabethan  Tragedy;   Saintsbury,  History  of  Criticism,  II. 

69 


70  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE  HISTORIC   DRAMA 

because  one  felt  that  they  were  characterized  by  a  broader  technique,  and 
that  this  broader  technique  was  a  consequence  of  the  historic  subject. 
Thus  Antouy  and  Cleopatra,  which  largely  suggests  the  Chronicle  form, 
was  called  a  "tragedy,"'  while  Richard  JI,  with  its  more  concentrated 
structure,  was  called  a  "historie."  Nevertheless  the  distinction  was  made, 
and  was  felt  strongly  enough  by  the  English  comedians  for  them  to  advertise 
their  repertoire  in  Germany  on  the  oldest  German  theatrical  announcement, 
that  of  Nuernberg,  in  the  words,  "Es  werden  agirt  Tragoedien  .... 
Historien." 

However,  as  early  as  1581  Sidney  had  quoted  the  Aristotelian  remarks 
that  poetry  is  higher  than  history,  and  that  historic  material  should  be 
fitted  into  the  mold  of  "tragedy";  he  had  expressed  the  doctrine  of  the 
observance  of  the  unities,  and  had  suggested  that  much  of  the  action  of  a 
play  should  be  related,  not  represented.^  In  spite  of  the  subsequent  devel- 
opment of  the  "historie"  type,  and  in  spite  of  the  achievements  of  Shake- 
speare, these  structural  demands  were  urged  ever  more  insistently.  These 
teachings,  and  the  examples  given  in  the  plays  of  Seneca,  caused  a  fusion 
of  the  two  types  of  drama,  and  of  the  interest  in  typical  themes  and  charac- 
ters on  the  one  hand,  and  in  definite  conflicts  and  individuals  on  the  other 
hand.  Yet  it  was  less  a  fusion  than  a  victory  of  the  "tragedy."  It  was 
thought  that  the  epic  "chronicle  history"  was  an  impossible  type,  and  that 
it  had  to  be  transformed  into  the  typical  "character-tragedy,"  as  had  been 
the  case  in  Shakespeare's  Richard  III,  and  still  more  in  Macbeth.  The 
result  of  this  demand  was  the  development  of  the  mixed  type  of  drama  called 
"tragedy,"  in  which  the  historic  interest  is  found  in  varying  proportions 
of  definiteness  and  conscientiousness,  and  in  which  the  severe  Aristotelian 
structure  is  again  and  again  broken,  because  pictures  are  often  given  in 
these  plays  of  broader  historic  movements  and  backgrounds.  In  England, 
and  especially  in  France,  the  proportion  of  historic  interest  was  small. 
In  Germany,  however,  since  the  days  when  Shakespeare's  "histories" 
became  known,  the  historic  interest  has  struggled  for  recognition  more  and 
more,  until  some  critics  and  writers  have  at  last  realized  that  the  historic 
drama  represents  a  definite  type  of  drama,  and  that  it  cannot  possibly  be 
made  to  conform  even  to  modified  Aristotelian  rules  except  in  rare  cases  of 
individualist  character  presentation^ 

In  this  mixed  type,  then,  called  "tragedy,"  to  which  belong  the  greater 
number  of  serious  dramas  that  have  been  written,  the  hero  is  a  great  historic 

1  Indeed  the  word  "tragedie"  was  used  descriptively  of  all  reversals  of  fortune. 
Thus  the  older  Richard  III  had  been  called  a  "true  tragedy." 

2  Sidney,  Apologie  jor  Poetrie,  Westminster,  1901. 


CHIEF   TYPES   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA  7 1 

person.  His  conflict,  however,  whether  historically  attested  or  invented, 
is  a  private  psychological  experience,  passional,  not  political,  in  nature. 
This  passional  psychological  experience  in  its  logical  connection  with  the 
typical  character  that  is  presented  is  the  main  interest;  hence  this  drama 
is,  after  all,  private,  not  historic.  The  question  of  historic  fidelity  matters 
little,  for  the  historic  setting  is  mere  scenery  and  decoration;  simplicity 
of  plot  and  of  hero  is  an  advantage;  and  the  guilt  and  recompense  formula 
may  be  applied  to  the  historic  reality  as  much  as  the  poet  wishes.  The 
less  these  plays  are  given  of  specific  definiteness,  the  more  t5^ical  and 
mythical  they  can  be  made,  the  more  perfect  they  will  be  as  "tragedies." 
Almost  the  whole  body  of  "tragedy"  generated  by  the  Senecan  example 
and  by  the  Aristotelian  influence  must  be  classed  here.  The  type 
includes  such  extremes  as  Shakespeare's  Macbeth  and  Coriolanus,  as 
Corneille's  Cinna,  as  Schiller's  Maria  Stuart  and  Wallenstein,  and  as 
Goethe's  Egmont.  The  historic  interest  that  is  revealed  in  the  last 
two  tragedies  is  so  great  that  one  is  almost  unvdlhng  to  confess  that  they 
are  not  true  historic  dramas.  In  Goethe  and  Schiller  the  desire  to 
write  a  "tragedy"  was  in  conflict  with  an  inborn  instinct  for  historic  life 
and  breadth;  the  latter  caused  them  to  transcend  the  narrow  tradi- 
tional bounds  of  tragedy-structure  and  tragedy-theme. 

In  spite  of  the  submersion  of  the  historic  interest,  this  mixed  type 
nevertheless  contained  in  itself  the  possibilities  of  true  historic  drama,  of 
the  individualist  as  also  of  the  corporate  type. 

Goethe's  Goetz  von  Berlichingen  had  presented  much  real  historic 
material,  and  had  produced  a  whole  series  of  similar  "  Ritterdramen. " 
These  led  Schiller  to  a  recognition  of  the  historic  drama  as  a  distinct  type, 
and  he  contrasted  it  with  his  own  "mittlere  Gattung." 

A  new  chapter  in  the  development  of  the  historic  drama  opened  when, 
in  consequence  of  the  belief  that  history  is  the  progressive  self -revelation 
of  the  world-spirit,  the  Romanticists  advised  the  writing  of  historic  dramas, 
and  the  observance  of  accuracy  in  the  presentation  of  movements  and 
individuals.  "Historic  drama"  and  "tragedy"  were  still  felt  to  coincide, 
but  in  an  entirely  novel  sense.  The  tragic  mold  was  now  regarded  merely 
as  a  formula  that  expressed  the  nature  of  historic  experience,  and  the  historic 
experience  itself  was  the  chief  interest.  One  group  of  writers,  those  that  were 
under  the  influence  of  Shakespeare's  historical  plays,  aimed,  like  Grabbe, 
at  truthful  representation  of  concrete  history.  Hebbel,  who  represents  the 
metaphysical  group,  apprehended  the  world-process  and  its  epochs  in  uni- 
versalized and  not  specific  terms,  and  consequently  recognized  the  possi- 
bility of  having  a  symbolic  type  of  drama  which  he  calls  "das  Drama," 


72  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE    HISTORIC  DRAMA 

in  addition  to  the  older  types  which  he  calls  "subjectiv-individuell,"  and 
"partiell-national."' 

Koch,  in  his  book,  Drama  und  Geschichte  hei  Hebbel,  rewords  Hebbel's 
classification,  and  calls  the  types  "welthistorisch-symbolisch,"  "psycho- 
logisch-historisch,"  and  "national-historisch."  He  adds  to  this  a  type 
which  he  calls  "historisches  Ideendrama,"  which  he  says  is  a  "typische 
Abart"  of  the  drama  which  Hebbel  called  "subjektiv-individuell,"  and 
which  he  himself  termed  "psychologisch-historisch."^ 

Hettner,  who  voiced  a  reaction  against  the  philosophical  and  realistic 
tendencies,  maintained  sternly  that  the  epic  historic  drama  is  not  an  inde- 
pendent type.     He  recognized  only  the  character-tragedy  or  mixed  type. 3 

Gutzkow  distinguishes  the  "historisches  Genrebild,"  and  a  drama 
which  he  calls  "rein  historisch-dramatisch."4 

Freytag  finds  three  types  of  historic  dramas:  one  which  aims  to  give 
a  true  presentation  of  an  historic  personality,  one  which  aims  to  give  "Zeit- 
farbe,"  and  one  which  pictures  "das  Schlagende  des  wirklichen  Geschicks.''^ 

Von  der  Pfordten  speaks  of  dramas  concerning  historic  personalities 
as  being  either  "zeitlos,"  "halbhistorisch,"  or  "historisch."^ 

R.  M.  Meyer,  finally,  speaks  of  a  "reales  Historiendrama  einer  neuen 
Zeit,"  or  "historisches  Volksdrama."^ 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  there  has  never  been  a  serious  attempt  to  classify 
carefully  the  existing  historic  dramas.  Although  comparatively  few  of 
them  are  wholly  honest  in  historic  purpose,  although  few  emancipate  them- 
selves completely  from  the  mixed  type,  and  although  the  historic  interests 
found  in  them  are  infinitely  varied  in  their  nature  and  points  of  view,  yet 
it  is  possible  to  disengage  tendencies  that  point  to  the  existence  of  several 
distinct  varieties.  These  tendencies  correspond  in  the  main,  first,  to  the 
recitative  and  pragmatic,  or  individualist  conception  of  history;  secondly, 
to  the  philosophical;  and  thirdly,  to  the  genetic  conception  of  history. 
When  once  it  is  clearly  recognized  that  those  types  of  historic  drama  which 
are  the  product  of  a  conscientious  effort  to  comprehend  and  present  actual 
political  or  social  processes  are  totally  distinct  in  aim  and  method  from 

I  Hebbel,  Werhe,  XI,  40. 

'  Koch,  Drama  und  Geschichte  hei  Hebbel,  38  IT.,  51. 

3  Hettner,  Das  moderne  Drama,   38. 

4  Einleitung  to  Wullenweber. 

s  Freytag,    Technih  des  Dramas,    16. 

^  Von  der  Pfordten,  Werden  und  Wesen  des  historischen  Dramas. 

7  R.  M.  Meyer,  Die  deutsche  Literaliir  des  neunzehnten  Jahrhunderts,  in  the  inter- 
pretations of  Grabbe  and  Hauptmann. 


CHIEF   TYPES   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA  73 

those  types  of  historic  drama  that  are  concerned  with  individualist  themes 
of  passion  or  character,  then  it  will  be  recognized  that  these  types  do  not 
interfere  with  one  another.  Then  the  legitimacy  of  pure  historic  drama — 
in  particular,  of  the  corporate  movement-drama — may  come  to  be  more 
generally  conceded,  and  the  future  may  bring  it  to  interesting  and  valuable 
fruition. 

II 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  constantly  that  in  making  the  following 
classification  there  is  no  thought  of  making  the  classes  absolute,  but 
merely  an  effort  to  define  predominating  tendencies.  Dramas  whose 
aim  is  primarily  historic  show  an  individualistic,  a  symbolic,  and  a 
corporate  type.  In  illustration  of  these  types  many  dramas  will  be 
mentioned  that  are  not  free  from  unhistoric  elements  and  intentions. 
They  are  considered  because  they  do  illustrate,  more  or  less  perfectly, 
lines  along  which  the  pure  historic  drama  is  developing.' 

THE   INDIVIDUALISTIC   CHARACTER-DRAMA 

Here  one  can  have  (i)  a  variety  in  which  the  conflict  is  the  personal, 
individual  experience  of  a  few  chief  characters;  the  result  of  the  conflict 
is  a  true  historic  event  which  produces  far-reaching  effects,  or  which  is, 
at  least,  publicly  interesting.  The  motivation  of  the  action  is  personal 
and  passional.  Here  the  interest  is  both  historic  and  psychological,  for 
it  consists  in  the  desire  to  fathom  the  individually  psychological  origin  of 
some  real  public  action.  The  plot  merely  suggests  the  broader  results 
of  the  action  or  event.  The  determining  environment  may  be  meager, 
or  full  and  detailed.  In  its  ideal  form  this  variety  would  be  free  from 
distortion  of  known  fact  either  for  the  purpose  of  making  motives  more 
humanly  comprehensible,  or  to  fit  the  plot  into  the  guilt  and  recompense 
formula. 

Browning's  Strafford  would  seem  to  belong  here.  Strafford's  fall  is 
demanded  by  the  "public  weal,"  as  represented  especially  by  Pym;  we 
see  somewhat  of  the  complexity  of  the  opposing  power,  as  well  as 
of  Strafford's  party,  yet  the  chief  interest  is  the  analysis  of  the  passional 
motives  that  had  determined  Strafford's  actions.  Ibsen's  Kongsemne, 
Hebbel's  Agnes  Bernauer,  Kleist's  Prinz  von  Homburg,  if  indeed  we  did 
not  know  of  the  fictitiousness  of  the  conflict  between  Elector  and  Homburg, 
likewise  seem  to  illustrate  this  type.  Biographical  plays  like  the  Elizabethan 
Sir  Thomas  More  can  also  be  classed  here.  The  pragmatic  tendency  to 
teach  lessons  of  loyalty  to  kings,  or  of  patriotism,  or  of  the  sacrifice  of  the 

I  The  illustrative  examples  are  merely  mentioned  at  this  juncture,  not  explained. 


74  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

individual  to  the  needs  of  the  whole  is  illustrated  in  such  plays  as  Chapman's, 
as  Collin's  Regulus,  as  Kleist's  Prinz  von  Homburg,  as  Grillparzer's  Juedin 
von  Toledo,  or  as  Hebbel's  Agnes  Bernaiier. 

One  can  have  (2)  a  modication  of  this  type.  When  a  full  picture  of  the 
determining  background  is  given,  when  this  background  is  conceived  as 
a  conflict  of  races  or  ages,  when  the  individual  psychological  conflict  in 
the  foreground  is  felt  to  express  symbolically  the  larger  conflict,  and  when, 
finally,  the  conflict  of  epochs  in  the  background  is  felt  as  a  stage  in  the 
development  of  the  world-spirit — then  we  have  the  type  which  is  illustrated 
in  Hebbel's  Judith  and  in  his  Herodes  imd  Mariamne.  This  type  coincides 
with  the  first  variety  of  the  symbolic  drama  which  is  discussed  below. 

It  is  possible  to  have  (3)  a  variety  of  the  individualistic  historic  drama 
which  corresponds  to  what  Gutzkow  called  "  historisches  Genrebild." 
Here  the  setting  and  background  reproduce  a  definite  past  time  and  place; 
the  plot  is  either  real  or  invented,  and  is  a  psychological,  individual  experi- 
ence of  private  result  and  bearing.  The  interest  here  too  is  in  part  historic 
and  in  part  psychological.  The  historic  background  must  be  true,  and  the 
plot  historically  possible.  A  picture  is  given  of  an  epoch  of  civilization. 
This  type  seems  analogous  to  such  efforts  as  Riehl's  Kulturgeschichtliche 
Novellen,  or  as  some  of  the  Ahnen  of  Freytag.  Kleist's  Kaethchen  von 
Heilbronn  can  be  classed  here,  and  one  can  even  extend  the  type  so 
as  to  include  Lessing's  Minna  von  Barnhelm  and  Schiller's  Kahale 
und  Liebe.  It  may  be  thought,  perhaps,  that  the  conditions  of  mem- 
bership to  this  type  have  been  made  amply  liberal,  so  inclusive  as  to 
make  the  division  meaningless.  Yet,  in  a  sense,  a  social  drama  whose 
environmental  tendencies  are  true  to  actuality,  whether  past  or  present, 
is  historical  in  the  sense  used  by  Hebbel  in  his  "  Vorwort"  to  Maria  Mag- 
dalena,  and  a  classification  of  historic  dramas  can  well  include  such  plays 
where  they  have  aimed  to  give  a  true  picture  of  actual  social  tendencies. 
At  any  rate,  it  is  clear  that  the  bounding  line  of  this  type  is  very  elusive. 

THE    SYMBOLIC   PROCESS-DRAMA 

The  symbolic  process-drama  is  the  result  of  the  human  tendency  to 
direct  the  attention  to  the  general  rather  than  to  the  specific  qualities  of 
objects  and  processes.  This  tendency  helps  us  in  the  matter  of  finding  our 
bearings  in  the  midst  of  the  distracting  variety  of  things  among  which  we 
are  placed.  Epochs  of  history,  conceived  as  typical  stages  in  the  life-story 
of  "Mankind" — or  of  the  "Absolute" — are  themselves  the  subjects  of 
these  dramas.  In  some  of  them  the  Infinite  is  represented  as  a  prin- 
ciple that  fills  and  directs  the  Finite;    the  cosmic  powers  speak  visibly 


CHIEF  TYPES   OF  THE  HISTORIC  DRAMA  75 

through  human  embodiments.  This  type  does  not  exclude  passional 
character-presentation . 

Here  one  can  have  (i)  a  variety  where  the  conflict  of  epochs  is  given  as 
a  revolutionary  background  illustrated  in  the  foreground  by  a  representative 
individual  conflict,  a  conflict  which  is  seen  to  be  a  result  of  the  larger  con- 
flict. This  is  the  type  described  also  as  the  second  variety  of  the  individual- 
istic drama.     Most  of  Hebbel's  dramas  belong  here. 

We  come  (2)  to  a  type  of  symbolic  drama  where  the  conflicting  ages  and 
tendencies  are  not  given  merely  as  backgrounds  of  illustrative  conflicts,  but 
where  the  great  cultural  movements  themselves  furnish  the  action  of  the 
foreground.  This  is  done  by  embodying  in  a  few  symbolic  human  repre- 
sentatives the  cultural  forces  which  are  the  bearers  of  the  action.  The 
cultural  movement  is  conceived  typically  as  a  universally  human  movement 
which  can  occur  now  in  one  race,  and  now  in  another.  Goethe's  Natuer- 
liche  Tochter,  that  is,  the  trilogy,  if  it  had  been  completed,  Grillparzer's 
Libussa,  and  especially  Hebbel's  Moloch,  illustrate  this  type. 

This  brings  us  (3)  to  a  type  In  which  the  theme  is  likewise  the  revolution- 
ary conflict  itself.  This  time,  however,  the  conflicting  forces  are  concretely 
represented  by  many  or  fewer  known  historic  individuals,  together  with 
an  interested  and  determining  environment.  This  type  is  illustrated  by 
Ibsen's  Julian,  and  to  some  extent  by  Hebbel's  Judith  at  one  end,  and  by 
Grabbe's  Hermannsschlacht  at  the  other  end.  At  this  end  it  is  identical 
with  the  corporate  movement-drama  wherever  the  latter  presents  the  historic 
movement  with  a  philosophic  consciousness  of  its  larger  cosmic  significance. 

THE   CORPORATE   MOVEMENT-DRAMA 

This  is  the  species  which  was  foreshadowed  by  the  English  Chronicle 
Histories,  but  which  was  distorted  under  the  influence  of  the  "tragedy"; 
it  is  the  species  that  has  again  and  again  struggled  for  freer  life  and  develop- 
ment. It  is  the  drama  which  R.  M.  Meyer  has,  it  seems  to  me,  in  mind 
when  he  speaks  of  a  "reales  Historiendrama  einer  neuen  Zeit,"  or  of  "his- 
torisches  Volksdrama  grossen  Stils."  In  some  of  its  forms  it  is  identical 
with  the  third  variety  of  the  symbolic  type. 

Here,  then,  a  large  picture  of  far-reaching  historic  events  is  given,  in 
which  the  interest  for  the  individual's  private  problem  recedes  before  the 
interest  in  the  problem  of  the  masses;  the  aim  is  to  give  a  true  historic 
picture  in  its  broad  effects,  to  represent  concrete  historic  movements  of 
large  importance.  The  interest  is  in  many  persons  and  in  the  whole  of  which 
they  are  a  part;  it  is  political  or  social,  not  passional  or  private.  The  mass, 
including  its  greater  individuals,  not  the  predominating  great  Individual, 


76  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA 

is  the  hero  of  the  drama.  The  individuals  that  appear,  the  conflicts,  the 
determining  conditions,  and  the  events,  are  presented  in  particular  and  not 
in  typical  terms.  Instead  of  poetic  justice,  of  guilt  and  retribution,  we 
tind  the  acceptance  of  events  as  vindicated  by  mere  occurrence. 

This  type  is  illustrated,  more  or  less  perfectly,  in  such  plays  as  Shake- 
speare's Henry  VI,  as  Goethe's  Goetz  and  Egmont,  as  Schiller's  Wilhelm 
Tell,  as  the  various  plays  concerning  the  Hermanns schlacht  and  Andreas 
Hofer,  as  Grabbe's  Napoleon,  as  Hauptmann's  Florian  Geyer  and  Die 
Weber. 

The  historic  movements  that  have  offered  themselves  as  subjects  for 
dramas  of  this  kind  have  usually  been  conflicts  such  as  international  wars 
of  conquest  or  stmggles  for  liberation;  or  conflicts  such  as  class  struggles 
of  all  kinds,  uprisings  of  oppressed  classes,  liberations  from  tyranny,  con- 
spiracies, revolutions,  and  civil  wars  generally.  From  these  struggles 
subjects  of  historic  dramas  have  again  and  again  been  taken;  yet,  as  has 
been  previously  developed,  they  have  rarely  been  adequately  dramatized 
as  movements,  because  men  believed  that  dramas  ought  to  deal  with  indi- 
vidual psychological  experiences;  and  because,  not  understanding  the  genetic 
interpretation  of  history,  they  were  naturally  more  interested  in  these 
individual  problems.  It  would  seem  as  though  an  inexhaustible  field  were 
here  waiting  for  dramatic  reinterpretations  in  the  light  of  modern  social 
sympathy  and  in  the  light  of  modern  historic  comprehension. 


PART  III 

THE  NATURE  AND  THE  TECHNIQUE  OF  THE  CORPORATE 

MOVEMENT-DRAMA 

All  the  types  of  historic  drama,  except  the  corporate  movement-drama, 
will,  on  the  whole,  be  constructed  along  the  lines  that  have  been  found 
effective  for  the  "tragedy."  There  will  be,  it  is  true,  a  stricter  observance 
of  historic  accuracy;  characterization  will  be  specific  rather  than  typical; 
and  logical  motivation  from  scene  to  scene  and  from  character  to  catastrophe 
will  be  somewhat  less  rigid;  yet  the  differences  of  technique  will  not  neces- 
sarily be  radical.  It  is  quite  other\vdse  in  the  case  of  the  corporate 
movement-drama.  The  old  dicta  concerning  unity  of  plot  and  of  hero, 
concerning  logical  motivation,  concerning  the  connection  of  guilt  with 
catastrophe,  and  concerning  typical  characterization,  are  not  at  all 
applicable  to  this  type. 

On  the  basis  of  my  study  of  historic  dramas,  and  of  the  theories  con- 
cerning the  relation  between  history  and  the  drama,  I  offer  the  following 
exposition  of  what  seems  to  me  a  legitimate  type  of  historic  drama,  a  type 
which  evolution  is  tending  more  and  more  to  differentiate  and  to  perfect. 
In  connection  with  the  discussion  of  the  various  points  the  reader  is  referred 
constantly  to  the  opinions  concerning  these  matters  quoted  in  Part  I.  In 
Part  IV  existing  historic  dramas  will  be  studied  with  reference  to  their 
contribution  to  the  evolution  of  this  type. 

The  C0RP0R.\TE  MOVEMENT-DRAMA,  then,  is  a  type  of  drama  that 
presents  and  interprets  historic  movements  in  the  terms  of  dramatic 
impersonation  and  representation.  It  gives  a  picture  of  numerous 
interests,  of  personages,  events,  and  circumstances  that  are  historic, 
colored  and  determined  by  the  definite  time  and  place  depicted; 
its  prime  intention  is  specific  and  realistic.  Moreover,  it  presents 
them,  not  as  private  and  individually  interesting  fates  or  facts — be 
it  of  adventure  or  of  a  universal  human  conflict  realized  in  an 
historic  individual — but  only  in  so  far  as  they  manifest  the  mighty 
life  of  a  great  whole;  they  have  interest  chiefly  in  their  relation 
to  the  realization  of  important  world-values.  In  other  words,  an  historic 
epoch  is  presented  as  a  movement  of  comprehensive  interests  and  relations, 
in  which  large  masses  and  society  as  a  whole  are  affected,  and  inside  of  which 
private  contingencies  and  tragedies  of  course  play  their  part.     This  move- 

77 


78  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA 

ment  is  seen  to  be  a  conflict  between  inevitably  produced  antithetical  mass 
tendencies  which  are  reflected  in  all  the  individuals;  therefore  the  collision 
itself  is  inevitable;  everything  is  the  product  of  historic  necessity.  If  one 
defines  "fate"  as  the  symbol  of  the  compulsion  due  to  the  influence 
of  natural  necessity,  of  heredity,  and  of  environment,  in  the  determining 
of  characters  and  actions,  then  it  is  clear  that  in  a  deep  and  interesting 
sense  the  corporate  movement-drama  is  a  fate-drama. 

On  the  basis  of  the  preceding  definition,  several  important  technical 
deductions  must  be  made. 

I 

First,  it  is  frankly  avowed  that  the  interest  is  political  or  social,  not 
passional.  It  is  therefore  not  necessary  to  convert  into  character-tragedies 
the  political  actions  or  "Staatsaktionen"  which  Schiller  and  so  many  others 
had  thought  were  unfitting  subjects  for  the  drama. 

II 

Inasmuch  as  the  subject  is  a  big  movement  that  affects  whole  masses, 
the  old  conceptions  of  unity  of  plot  and  unity  of  hero  are  broadened.  The 
principle  of  unity  is  given  by  the  philosophic  comprehension  of  the  historic 
movement.  Inasmuch  as  this  movement  results  from  the  conflict  of  com- 
plex forces,  the  drama  is  very  likely  to  have  a  multiple  plot  and  a  multiple 
hero  or  heroes,  often  mass  against  mass,  or  mass  plus  individuals  against 
mass  plus  individuals.  The  mass  itself  is  the  collective  or  corporate  hero. 
The  striking  individuals  have  meaning  only  in  their  relation  to  the  mass  out 
of  which  they  rise,  and  with  which  they  either  quarrel  or  co-operate.  Thus 
one  of  the  main  aims  of  this  historic  drama  is  to  give  a  full  picture  of  the 
mass  in  its  complex  life,  influence,  and  volition.  The  individual  is  seen 
to  be  only  one  of  the  mass,  influenced,  demanded,  molded  by  it,  as  well 
as  influencing  it;  however  mighty  his  individualism,  he  leads  no  insular 
existence,  he  is  the  product  and  even  the  instrument  of  his  milieu;  and  he 
can  do  nothing  without  being  either  aided  or  hampered  by  it. 

NOTE  TO  II 

Aristotle  {Poetics),  Lessing  {Hamburgische  Dramaturgie),  Freytag  {Die 
Technik  des  Dramas),  and  the  rank  and  file  everywhere  had  demanded  that  the 
action  center  about  one  main  hero.  Franz  {Aujbau  der  Handlung  in  den 
klassischen  Dranien),  Weitbrecht  {Das  deutsche  Drama),  Bulthaupt  {Dramaturgic 
des  Schauspiels),  and  others,  broaden  this  conception  very  slightly  when  they 
analyze  plays  like  Wilhelm  Tell.  Ulrici,  in  his  discussion  of  Shakespeare's 
historic  plays,  demands  unity  of  idea  rather  than  of  hero.  Von  der  Pfordten 
{Das  Werden  und  Wesen  des  historischen  Dramas)  demands  greater  freedom. 


THE   CORPORATE   DRAMA  79 

Hauptmann's  Die  Weber,  like  Schiller's  Wilhelm  Tell,  has  helped  to  make  critics 
see  that  it  is  possible  to  have  a  collective  instead  of  a  single  hero;  this  point  is 
made  by  R.  M.  Meyer  (Die  deutsche  Literatur  des  neunzehnten  Jahrhunderts)  and 
by  others. 

Ill 

Since  the  corporate  political  movement  and  the  complex  forces  that 
take  part  in  the  conflict  are  the  main  interest,  neither  the  plot  nor  the 
individuals  involved  need  be  "distinguished"  or  "interesting"  in  the 
old  sense.  It  is  the  mass,  just  the  rank  and  file  in  its  corporate  signifi- 
cance, that  interests  us. 

NOTE  TO  III 

Aristotle  demands  that  the  characters  of  a  tragedy  should  be  above  the  common 
level  {Poetics,  chaps.  15,  13,  and  also  9).  This  lav^r  was  universally  accepted, 
and  is  upheld  also  by  Volkelt  (Die  Aesthetik  des  Tragischen,  chap,  v,  ed.  of  1897); 
concerning  the  singly  uninteresting  weavers  in  Hauptmann's  drama,  he  says, 
"Wohl  aber  tritt  durch  die  Webermasse  als  Masse  der  soziale  Hintergrund  und 
Zusammenhang  als  etwas  Neues  hinzu,  und  von  hier  aus  eben  stammt  das  Hinaus- 
wachsen  ins  Grosse." 

IV 

The  method  of  characterization  is  specific,  not  typical,  because  the 
very  word  "historic"  refers  to  phenomena  and  personalities  as  they  occur 
only  once. 

NOTE  TO  rV 

This  point  has  been  fully  illustrated  in  Part  I.  Von  der  Pfordten  emphatically 
demands  specific  characterization,  in  conscious  opposition  to  the  earlier  view. 

V 

Moreover,  outer  visible  happening  takes  the  place  of  inner  trans- 
formation and  development;  thus  there  may  be  much  vulgar  clash 
of  arms,  much  presentation  of  actions  that  do  not  appear  to  be  clearly 
and  psychologically  motived  as  the  results  of  individual  passion  and  charac- 
ter; yet,  if  the  dramatist  has  grasped  the  psychology  of  the  movement, 
under  it  all  will  be  felt  the  real  pulse  of  history,  which  indeed  could  not 
be  presented  in  any  other  way.  Actions  must,  of  course,  not  be  in  dis- 
harmony with  character,  but  psychological  motivation  confines  itself  chiefly 
to  showing  that  all  the  individuals  are  determined  by  their  age  and 
environment. 

VI 

Nor  need  the  action  or  plot  show  constant  logical  dramatic  advance, 
for  the  necessary  presentation  of  many  threads,  and  the  giving  of  milieu, 


8o  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA 

as  also  the  definite  individualization  of  personalities,  involve  much  epic 
breadth;  there  may  be  scenes  that  add  little  or  nothing  to  the  advance  of 
the  action. 

NOTE  TO   VI 

Von  der  Pfordten  asserts  the  necessity  of  epic  breadth. 

VII 

This  liberality  in  the  matter  of  logical  motivation  applies  especially 
to  the  motivation  of  the  catastrophe.  Catastrophes  are  accepted  as  the 
product  of  a  large  historic  necessity,  even  where  they  cannot  be  interpreted 
as  punishment  for  guilt,  where  it  is  not  possible  to  connect  them  with  a  fault, 
or  misstep,  or  any  action  of  the  various  persons,  or  where  the  causes  are  not 
in  any  way  visible.  On  the  other  hand,  catastrophes  which  appear  as  the 
result  of  the  individual's  action,  or  as  punishment  for  inadequate  guilt  or 
for  adequate  guilt,  are,  of  course,  often  found  in  this  type  of  drama,  as 
they  are  in  life.  This  broad  and  all-inclusive  principle  of  historic  necessity 
takes  the  place  of  the  old  principle  of  tragic  necessity,  of  poetic  justice,  or 
of  retribution  for  guilt.  The  historic  movement  presented  in  this  drama 
is  the  inevitable  resultant  of  conflicting  mass  tendencies,  the  individual  and 
his  milieu  are  both  organs  of  the  age  and  its  necessities;  and  the  age  itself 
is  the  result  of  previous  ages.  There  is  an  unavoidable  fatality  in  the  great 
historic  march  of  things,  a  larger,  perhaps  incomprehensible,  causality  in  all 
the  seeming  play  of  chance  and  arbitrary  will.  Each  individual  and  the 
mass  act  only  by  historic  compulsion,  and  produce,  by  organically  neces- 
sary and  justified  conflict,  the  historic  result  so  inevitably  different  from  the 
endeavor  of  either.  Thus  the  question  of  guilt  and  punishment  vanishes ; 
the  grandeur  of  fate  can  manifest  itself  even  in  an  untimely  cutting  off  by 
disease  or  accident.  In  place  of  humanly  conceived  justice,  one  has  here 
the  premonition  of  an  eternal  will  beyond  human  comprehension,  a  causality 
beyond  the  narrow  human  vision.  The  reconciliation  is  transcendental, 
and  is  a  matter  of  religious  intuition. 

NOTE  TO  vn 

Thus  Schiller  had  spoken  of  the  "Ahndung  ....  einer  teleologischen 
Verknuepfung  der  Dinge"  {Ueber  die  tragische  Ktmst,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  49).  Similarly 
Hebbel  had  spoken  of  Fate  as  "die  Silhouette  Gottes,  des  Unbegreiflichen  und 
Unerfassbaren"  (Tagebuecher,  I,  224).  Cf.  also  G  rill  pa  rzer's  words  quoted  above. 


This  question  as  to  whether  the  reconciliation  should  be  immanently 
manifested  within  the  limits  of  the  drama,  or  whether  one's  scientific,  philo- 
sophic, and  religious  faith  ought  to  make  one  willing  to  accept  a  lack  of  visible 
reconciliation  in  the  drama,  is  a  much-discussed  problem.     Lipps  (Der  Streit 


THE   CORPORATE   DRAMA  ,  8 1 

ueber  die  Tragocdie)  strongly  opposes  this  latter  view,  but  it  seems  to  me  that 
Volkelt  is  correct  when  he  opposes  the  absolute  barring  of  "Weltanschauung" 
from  the  drama  {Die  Aesthetik  des  Tragischen,  p.  30). 

As  was  fully  shown  in  Part  I,  this  question  of  the  motivation  of  the  catastrophe 
has  been  a  bone  of  contention  for  ages.  The  chief  possible  attitudes  concerning 
the  question  are  the  following: 

(i)  Aristotle,  basing  his  analysis  chiefly  on  Sophocles,  had  said  that  the  hero, 
great  in  the  main,  must  fall  through  some  fault  of  his,  and  thus  awaken  pity  and 
fear.  This  view  was  accepted  by  Lessing.  Here  the  first  requirement  was  that 
there  should  be  logical  connection  between  the  catastrophe  and  the  person  to 
whom  it  happens.  As  a  result  of  this  requirement  of  logical  connection  it  appeared 
to  Aristotle  and  to  Lessing  that,  as  said  above,  the  hero,  good  in  the  main,  must 
have  a  decided  fault,  preferably  some  form  of  Hybris  or  over-assertion  of  himself 
against  other  individuals  or  against  the  moral  Law.  The  fault,  however,  is,  on 
the  whole,  felt  to  be  inadequately  proportioned  to  the  catastrophe  or  punishment. 
The  guilt  may  be  either  conscious,  and  freely  committed,  or  it  may  be  an  act 
compelled  by  "conditions,"  or  by  their  symbol  "fate." 

(2)  Closely  related  to  this  view  is  the  view  that  the  fault  need  be  merely  an 
action  by  the  hero,  which  in  some  way  causes  the  catastrophic  result.  This  view, 
held  by  Bellermann  {Schillers  Dramen),  is  accepted  now  by  most  students  of 
tragedy.  Lipps,  in  this  connection,  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  catas- 
trophe is  the  result,  as  well,  of  the  situations  and  characters  of  those  who  prepare 
the  hero's  ruin  {T)'^,  75). 

(3)  On  the  other  hand,  a  number  of  rigorous  moralists — as  Ulrici,  as  Ludwig 
— demanded  that  in  every  case  catastrophe  should  depend  on  guilt,  and  that  the 
guilt  should  be  adequately  proportioned  to  the  catastrophe.  They  beheved  that 
the  beneficent  moral  Power  which  they  postulated  at  the  helm  of  the  universe 
should  appear  visibly  victorious  within  the  limits  of  the  drama.  This  form  of 
the  tragic  is  accepted  as  one  form  by  Lipps;  but  he  insists  that  the  tragic  motif 
lies  in  the  fact  that  the  guilty  hero  is  compelled  to  acknowledge  the  victory  of 
a  moral  order.     Volkelt  also  sees  that  this  is  one  form  of  the  tragic. 

(4)  Another  group  of  theorists  has  insisted  that  guilt  is  necessarily  inherent 
in  the  very  fact  of  "individuation"  ("  Vereinzelung").  The  hero's  guilt  here  lies 
inevitably  in  the  necessary  effort  of  the  individual  to  assert  itself  as  an  individual, 
against  other  individuals  and  against  the  Absolute.  This  is  the  view  discussed 
in  Part  I,  especially  in  connection  with  Hegel  and  Hebbel.  Consequendy  the 
guilt  actually  committed  is  often  trivial  or  even  invisible.  When  Hebbel  says 
that  the  case  is  particularly  tragic  if  the  individual  is  wrecked  in  consequence  of 
a  "vortrefiiiche  Bestrebung"  (Werke,  XI,  40),  he  approaches  very  closely  the 
following  form. 

(s)  This  form  is  illustrated  in  Antigone  and  in  Max  Piccolomini.  Here 
a  guiltless,  agressively  moral  hero  chooses  consciously  the  performance  of 
a  difficult  duty,  knowing  that  this  will  lead  to  ruin.  This  phase  of  the  tragic 
is  upheld  by  Dueboc  {Die  Tragik  vom  Standpunkt  des  Optimismus). 


62  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC   DRAMA 

(6)  Guiltlessness  was  demanded  also  by  philosophers  like  Schopenhauer 
{Die  Welt  als  Wille  und  Vorstellung);  not,  however,  in  order  to  glorify  the 
moral  order,  but  on  the  contrary,  in  order  to  expose  what  seemed  to  him  a 
complete  lack  of  moral  order  in  the  world;  in  order  to  flaunt  before  us,  indeed, 
just  the  irrationality  of  the  world-will,  teaching  us,  thereby,  the  absolute 
worthlessness  of  all  living,  and  the  desirability  of  the  negation  of  the  "will 
to  live." 

(7)  Guiltless  heroes  and  unmotived  or  imperfectly  motived  catastrophes  can 
be  found,  together  with  guilty  heroes  and  deserved  catastrophes,  in  Shakespeare, 
in  Goethe,  in  Grillparzer,  in  Grabbe,  and  in  dramatists  generally  whenever  they 
have  allowed  their  situations  to  develop  naturally,  or  whenever  they  have  frankly 
accepted  given  historic  facts,  without  trying,  in  either  case,  to  fit  the  plots  and 
passions  of  the  small  section  of  life  chosen  for  the  drama  into  the  artificial  mold 
which  they  thought  was  demanded  by  tragic  theory.  Whenever  they  have  done 
this  they  have  approached  the  principle  of  historic  necessity.  Volkelt  {Die 
Aesthelik  des  Tragischen)  sees  that  there  are  many  sources  of  tragic  effect,  and 
distinguishes  "Das  Tragische  des  einfachen  Ungluecks"  and  "Das  Tragische  des 
verdienten  Ungluecks."  He  admits  catastrophes  that  seem  to  be  the  result  of 
chance  if  at  the  same  time  the  drama  gives  one  the  feeling  that  this  chance  is  some- 
how the  work  of  a  mysterious  fate-agency.  Elster  {Prinzipien  der  Literaturwissen- 
schajt,  26),  believes  in  frankly  accepting  "den  wirklichen  Verlauf  der  Welt." 

Thus  we  find  that  theory  has  distinguished  (i)  the  tragic  of  inadequate  guilt; 
(2)  the  tragic  of  mere  causal  connection  between  the  character  or  action  of  the 
hero  and  his  catastrophe;  (3)  the  tragic  of  adequate  guilt;  (4)  the  tragic  of  the 
guilt  of  individuation;  (5)  the  tragic  of  moral  valor;  (6)  the  tragic  of  guiltlessness; 
and  (7)  the  tragic  of  actuahty,  which  may,  or  may  not,  illustrate  guilt  or  moral 
valor,  obduracy  or  repentance. 


Closely  connected  with  the  discussion  of  the  motivation  of  the  catastrophe  is 
the  discussion  of  the  nature  of  the  victorious  force  that  causes  the  catastrophes 
to  occur.     The  possibilities  are  the  following: 

(i)  The  power  can  be  presented  in  the  drama  as  a  visibly  un comprehended 
power,  or  fate,  uncomprehended,  but  worshiped  nevertheless.  This  is  the  case 
in  the  antique  drama. 

(2)  The  victorious  force  can  be  represented  as  a  visibly  reasonable  fate- 
power,  as  supreme  justice  which  metes  out  carefully  its  catastrophes  only  to 
those  who  deserve  them. 

(3)  The  fate-power  can  be  conceived  as  reasonable  taken  in  its  broadest  sense, 
as  mere  enchainment  of  cause  and  effect.  This  enchainment  may  be  either  strictly 
visible  in  the  small  section  chosen  for  the  drama,  or  its  existence  may  be  accepted 
in  spite  of  a  seeming  lack  of  congruence  between  cause  and  effect.  This  last  is 
the  principle  of  historic  necessity. 


THE   CORPORATE   DRAMA  83 

VIII 

It  is  possible,  and  even  necessary,  to  treat  the  opposing  forces  with 
historic  objectivity,  and  to  show  the  justification  of  all  the  parties  in  that 
for  which  they  individually  struggle. 

This  objectivity  is  entailed  by  Hegel's  conception  of  history,  as  discussed  in 
the  Introduction. 

The  historic  result  as  a  whole  being  the  one  reality,  it  sweeps  in  its 
destructive  track  individuals  and  revolutionary  bodies.  Yet  individual 
men  continue  to  live  and  mate,  and  a  new  mass  takes  the  place  of 
the  old  mass;  the  species  is  eternal.  Hence  scenes  indicating  this  life 
that  is  to  continue  give  an  idyllic  relief  to  the  dramatic  march,  and  show 
the  nothingness  of  even  the  greatest  upheavals  as  against  this  eternal 
survival. 

X 

The  language  of  this  type  of  historic  drama  is  a  language  and  a 
rhythm  more  true  to  the  expression  of  the  people  concerned  than  the  con- 
ventionalized language  and  the  regular  meter  of  the  "tragedy." 

XI 

It  is  also  manifest  that  the  presentation  of  an  historic  movement  in 
this  way  needs  a  larger  and  freer  stage  than  ours  as  it  is,  and  that  one  of 
the  main  difficulties  of  the  historic  dramatist  is  the  adaptation  of  his  play 
to  the  stage.  A  return  to  something  of  the  bareness  and  vagueness  of  the 
Elizabethan  stage  would  be  a  great  advantage.  However,  inasmuch  as  most 
"acting"  plays,  even,  are  far  more  generally  read  than  seen,  and  as  the 
standard  of  "actability"  varies  so  enormously  with  age,  race,  and  class, 
the  thought  of  adaptation  to  the  demands  or  tastes  of  our  present  stage 
and  to  our  ordinary  audiences  ought  not  to  be  too  much  considered  in  the 
writing  of  an  historic  drama  conceived  in  this  form. 

NOTE   TO   XI 

Even  Aristotle  had  said  "Tragedy  ....  produces  its  effect  without  action; 
it  reveals  its  power  by  mere  reading,  ....  it  has  vividness  of  impression  in  read- 
ing as  well  as  in  representation"  {Poetics,  chap.  26).  (Cf.  also  Hebbel,  Werke, 
XI,  53-) 

XII 

The  question  of  historic  truth  demands  a  moment's  consideration. 
It  is  clear  that  the  necessity  of  handling  so  large  a  section  compels  the 
rearrangement   of   history.     Rigid  historic  literalness  can  sometimes  be 


84  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA 

sacrificed  if  the  dramatist  does  not  thereby  falsify  history.  His  first  aim 
is  always  to  give  a  true  picture  of  the  movement  chosen.  This  excludes 
dramas  of  "tendency,"  for  their  aim  is  political,  not  historic. 

NOTE  TO  xn 
This  subject  has  been  fully  illustrated  in  Part  I. 

XIII 

It  must  be  noted,  finally,  that  this  type  of  drama  is  not  necessarily 
a  tragedy.  Historic  events  and  movements  are  not  always  catastrophes 
except  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  defeated  party,  and  our  sympathetic 
attention  is  often  concentrated  upon  the  victorious  party  from  whose  point 
of  view  the  action  has  chiefly  been  developed.  Within  the  limits  of  the 
comprehensive  world-picture  which  is  given,  there  is  room  for  tragic  and 
non-tragic  figures  and  conflicts. 

Such,  then,  are  the  chief  features  which  characterize  the  corporate 
MOVEMENT-DRAMA.  If  existing  plays  are  studied  from  the  point  of  view 
which  results  from  this  conception  of  the  historic  drama,  much  interesting 
light  will  fall  on  dramas  that  have  been  criticized  for  lack  of  unity  and 
motivation.  Willing  forgetfulness  of  traditional  theory,  together  with 
large-hearted  openness  in  the  matter  of  apprehending  new  aesthetic  values, 
will  make  possible  not  only  the  appreciation  of  dramas  in  which  this  type 
has  in  the  past  struggled  for  existence,  but  may  lead,  in  the  future,  to 
interesting  and  valuable  developments. 


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.     Shakespeare  in  seinen  hoechsten  Charaktergebilden.     Dresden,  1864. 

Saentsbury,  G.     History  of  Criticism.     Edinburgh,  1900-4. 
ScHELLiNG,  F.  E.     Elizabethan  Drama.     Boston,  1908. 

.     The  English  Chronicle  Play.     New  York,  1902. 

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1895. 
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Leipzig,  1855. 
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.     Gedanken  zum  Drama.     Muenchen,  1905. 

Schopenhauer,  A.    Werke.    Leipzig,  189 1  (zweite  Auflage). 

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Aussprueche.     Rostock  i.  M.,  1903. 
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Nachgelassene  Schriften.     Leipzig,  1826. 


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Variorum  edition  of  Shakespeare's  Historical  Plays.     Edited  by  H.  H.  Fumess. 

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Voltaire.    CEuvres  completes.    Paris,  1828.  ^ 


90  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA 

Waetzoldt,  W.     Hebbcl  und  die  Philosophic  seiner  Zeit.     Graefenhainichen, 

1903. 
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Wanieck,  G.     Gottsched  und  die  Literatur  seiner  Zeit.     Leipzig,  1897. 
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.     Aesthetische  Feldzuege.     Hamburg,  1834. 

WiNBELBAND,  V.     Die  Lehren  vom  Zufall.     Berlin,  1870. 

.     Die  Philosophic  im  zwanzigsten  Jahrhundert.     Heidelberg,  1904. 

ZiEGLER,  K.     Grabbes  Leben  und  Charakter.     Hamburg,  1855. 

Zeegler,  Th.     Die  geistigen  und  sozialen  Strocmungen  des  neunzchnten  Jahr- 

hunderts.     Berlin,  1901. 
ZrNCKERNAGEL,   F.     Die   Grundlagen   der  Hebbelschen   Tragoedie.     Marburg 

a.  L.,  1904. 

A  LIST   OF   PLAYS 

The  English  Mystery  Plays  (Chester,  Coventry,  Towneley,  York). 

J.  Bale.     Kynge  Johan. 

Sackville  AND  NORTON.     Gorboduc;   Locrine;   The  Misfortunes  of  Arthur. 

T.  Kyd.     The  Spanish  Tragedy. 

R.  Greene.    James  IV.     George  a'  Greene. 

The  Troublesome  Raigne  of  John  King  of  England. 

The  True  Tragedie  of  Richard  Duke  of  York. 

Jack  Strawe. 

T.  Lodge.     The  Civil  Wars  of  Marius  and  Sulla. 

G.  Peele.     Edward  I. 

Sir  Thomas  More. 

The  History  of  Thomas  Lord  Cromwell. 

C.  Marlowe.     Tamburlaine;   Edward  II;  The  Massacre  of  Paris. 

T.  Heywood.     Edward  IV. 

W.  Shakespeare.  King  John;  Richard  II;  Henry  IV,  Parts  i  and  2;  Henry  V; 
Henry  VI,  Parts  i,  2,  and  3;  Richard  III;  Henry  VIII;  King  Lear;  Cym- 
beline;  Coriolanus;  Julius  Caesar;  Antony  and  Cleopatra;  Hamlet; 
Macbeth. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  9 1 

T.  Dekker.  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt. 
Ben  Jonson.  Sejanus;  Catiline. 
G.  Chapman.     Bussy  D'Ambois;   The  Revenge  of  Bussy  D'Ambois;    Byron's 

Conspiracy;  The  Tragedy  of  Charles  Duke  of  Byron;   Chabot. 
Fletcher  and  Massinger.    John  van  Olden  Barnevelt. 
Nero. 

T.  Nabbes.     Hannibal  and  Scipio. 
J.  Ford.     Parkin  Warbeck. 
H.  Glapthorne.     Albertus  Wallenstein. 


Das  Drama  des  Mittelalters.     In  Kuerschner,  Nationalliteratur. 

Das  Drama  der  Reformationszeit;  ibid. 

Die  englischen  Komoedianten;  ibid. 

Schweizerische  Schauspiele  des  sechzehnten  Jahrhunderts.     Edited  by  Baechtold. 

D.  C.  V.  Lohenstein.     Cleopatra. 

C.  A.  V.  Haugwitz.     Maria  Stuarda. 

A.  Gryphius.     Carolus  Stuardus;  Leo  Arminius;   Catharina  von  Georgien. 

C.  Weise.     Masaniello. 

Die  Wiener  Haupt  und  Staatsaktionen.     Edited  by  K.  Weiss. 

Karl  XII,  eine  Staatsaktion.     Edited  by  H.  Lindner. 

J.  E  Schlegel.     Herrmann. 

J.  Moeser.     Arminius. 

F.  G.  Klopstock.     Hermanns  Schlacht;  Hermann  und  die  Fuersten;  Hermanns 

Tod. 
H.  W.  Gerstenberg.     Ugolino. 
J.  F.  Cronegk.     Olint  und  Sophronia. 
J.  W.  V.  Brawe.     Brutus. 

G.  E.  Lessing.     Philotas;   Minna  von  Bamhelm;   Emilia  Galotti;   Nathan  der 

Weise;  Henzi-Fragment. 
C.  F.  Weisse.     Richard  III. 
J.  A.  Leisewitz.     Julius  von  Tarent. 
J.  W.  V.  Goethe.   Goetz  von  Berlichingen;  Egmont;  Tasso;  DerBuergergeneral; 

Die  Aufgeregten;  Der  Grosskophta;  Die  natuerliche  Tochter. 
J.  C.  F.  V.  Schiller.     Fiesco;    Kabale  imd  Liebe;   Don  Karlos;   Wallenstein; 

Maria  Stuart;   Die  Jungfrau  von  Orleans;    Die  Braut  von  Messina;   Wil- 

helm  Tell;  Demetrius. 
F.  Mueller.    Golo  und  Genoveva. 
A.  Nagel.     Der  Buergeraufruhr  in  Landshut. 
J.  Maier.     Fust  von  Stromberg. 
M.  Blaimhofer.     Die  Schweden  in  Baiem. 
J.  A.  ToERRTNG.     Agnes  Bemauerin;  Kaspar  der  Thorringer. 
J.  M.  Babo.     Otto  von  Wittelsbach. 
H.  J.  V.  Collin.     Regulus. 
T.  KoERNER.     Zriny. 


92  DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   HISTORIC  DRAMA 

A.  V.  KoTZEBUE.     Gustav  Wasa. 

L.  TiECK.     Kaiser  Octavian;  Leben  und  Tod  der  heiligen  Genoveva. 

Z.  Werner.    Die  Weihe  der  Kraft. 

A.  V.  Arnim.  Der  echte  und  der  falsche  Waldemar;  Der  Markgraf  von  Branden- 
burg. 

C.  Brentano.     Die  Gruendung  Prags. 

H.  V.  Kleist.  Robert  Guiscard;  Kaethchen  von  Heilbronn;  Die  Hermanns- 
schlacht;  Der  Prinz  von  Homburg. 

L.  Uhland.     Ernst  Herzog  von  Schwaben;   Ludwig  der  Baler. 

P.  F.  V.  Uechtritz.     Alexander  und  Darius;  Die  Babylonler  In  Jerusalem. 

M.  Beer.     Struensee. 

E.  V.  ScHENK.     Belisar. 

F.  Grillparzer.     Koenlg  Ottokars  Glueck  und  Ende;  Eln  treuer  Diener  seines 

Herm;  Die  Juedin  von  Toledo;   Bruderzwist  in  Hapsburg;   Libussa. 
K.  L.  Immermann.     Friedrich  der  Zweite;  Alexis;  Andreas  Hofer. 

E.  Raupach.     Die  Hohenstaufen;   Crom wells  Ende. 

C.  D.  Grabbe.  Marius  und  Sulla;  Kaiser  Friedrich  Barbarossa;  Kaiser  Hein- 
rich  der  Sechste;   Napoleon;   Hannibal;   Die  Hermannsschlacht. 

G.  Buechner.     Dantons  Tod. 

A.  V.  Platen.     Marats  Tod;  Die  Liga  von  Cambrai. 
A.  Fischer.     Masaniello. 

F.  RuECKERT.     Kaiser  Heinrich  der  Vierte;    Cristofero  Colombo;  Herodes  der 

Grosse. 
H.  Laube.     Monaldeschi;   Struensee;   Essex. 

K.  F.  GuTZKOW.     Nero;   Patkul;   Zopf  und  Schwert;  Wullenweber. 
F.   Hebbel.   Judith;    Herodes  und  Mariamne;    Genoveva;    Agnes   Bemauer; 

Gyges  und  sein  Ring;  Die  Nibelvmgen;  Demetrius;   Moloch;  Die   Dith- 

marschen. 
O.  Ludwig.     Die  Makkabaeer;   Genoveva;   Wallensteinentwurf. 
W.  Gaertner.     Andreas  Hofer. 
K.  R.  V.  GoTTSCHALL.     Ulrich  von  Hutten;    Robespierre;    Koenig  Karl  XII; 

Herzog  Bemhard  von  Weimar. 
R.  Prutz.     Karl  von  Bourbon;  Moritz  von  Sachsen. 
W.  R.  Greepenkerl.     Maximilian  Robespierre;  Die  Girondisten. 

F.  Halm  (E.  F.  J.  v.  Muench-Bellinghausen).     Der  Fechter  von  Ravenna. 

E.  Palleske.     Koenig  Monmouth;   Oliver  Cromwell. 

J.  Mosen.  Kaiser  Otto  der  Dritte;  Der  Sohn  des  Fuersten;  Herzog  Bemhard 
von  Weimar. 

G.  Freytag.    Die  Fabler. 

P.  Heyse.     Ludwig  der  Baier;   Alkibiades. 

A.  Lindner.     Brutus  and  CoUatinus;  Die  Bluthochzeit;  Der  Reformator. 

R.  Hamerling.     Danton  und  Robespierre. 

F.  C.  Biedermann.     Kaiser  Heinrich  IV;    Kaiser  Otto  III;    Der  letzte  Buer- 

germeister  von  Strassburg. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  93 

F.  V.  Saar.     Kaiser  Heinrich  IV. 

A.  V.  WiLBRANDT.     Gracchus  der  Volkstribun;  Arria  und  Messalina;  Nero. 
M.  Greef  (F.  H.  Frey).     Nero;  Prinz  Eugen;  Heinrich  der  Loewe;  Konradin. 
H.  Bin^THAUPT.     Gerold  Wendel;  Eine  neue  Welt. 

D.  V.  LiLEENCRON.     Der  Trifels  und  Palermo. 

E.  V.  Weldenbruch.     Harald;   Die  Karolinger;   Die  Quitzows;   Heinrich  und 

Heinrichs  Geschlecht. 
K.  Bleibtreu.     Schicksal;  Weltgericht. 
H.  SuDERMANN.     Teja;  Johannes. 

G.  Hauptmantst.     Die  Weber;  Florian  Geyer. 

H.  V.  GuMPPENBERG.     Koenig  Konrad  I;  Koenig  Heinrich  I. 

O.  V.  D.  Pfordten.     1812;   Der  Koenig  von  Rom;   Friedrich  der  Grosse. 

A.  Ott.     Karl  der  Kuehne  und  die  Eidgenossen. 

F.  Held.    Das  Fest  auf  der  Bastille. 

F.  Lienhard.     Naphtali;   Luther  auf  der  Wartburg. 

J.  Lauef.     Der  Burggraf ;  Der  Eisenzahn. 

W.  Weigand.     Florian  Geyer. 

M.  BuEHLER  UND  G.  LucK.     Calvinfestspiele  in  Chur. 

For  purposes  of  comparison  historic  dramas  of  Lope  de  Vegas,  Comeille, 
Racine,  Voltaire,  Victor  Hugo,  Byron,  Tennyson,  Browning,  Ibsen,  and  others 
have  been  considered. 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS 


Addison,  12. 
Aristotle,  10. 
Boileau,  13. 
Buechner,  48. 

Chapman,  12. 
Coleridge,  66. 
Corneille,  13. 
Dryden,  12. 

Ford,  II. 

Freytag,  61,  72. 

Gervinus,  52. 
Goethe,  18  ff. 
Gottsched,  14. 
Grabbe,  41  ff. 
Griepenkerl,  49. 
Grillparzer,  34  ff. 
Gumppenberg,  65. 
Gutzkow,  52,  72. 

Hebbel,  52  ff.,  72. 
Hegel,  49. 
Hettner,  61,  72. 

Ibsen,  64. 
Immermann,  38  ff. 
Johnson,  13. 
Jonson,  12. 


Klopstock,  14. 
Koch,  72. 

Laube,  53. 
Lessing,  15  ff. 
Lothar,  64. 
Lublinski,  65. 
Ludwig,  62  ff. 

Meyer,  R.  M.,  65,  72. 
Meyr,  Melchior,  51. 

Opitz,  14. 

Roetscher,  51. 
Rymer,  12. 

Schiller,  23  ff. 
Schlegel,  A.  W.,  33. 
Sidney,  12. 

Tieck,  33, 

Ulrici,  51. 

Vaughn,  66. 
Vischer,  50. 
Voltaire,  14. 
Von  der  Pfordten,  65. 

Welthly,  64. 
Woodbridge,  66. 


95 


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